In several parts of Wayanad, the hilly region in Kerala from where Congress president Rahul Gandhi is contesting from, voter enthusiasm is pretty high. They are showing up at polling booths in large numbers braving the sun. "I stood in the queue for more than an hour. I had never experienced something like this before," said Neravath Jayan, an agriculturist at Noolpuzha grama panchayat in Sultan Bathery, one of the seven Assembly segments that come under the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency. In two hours after the polling began, Wayanad had recorded about 12% voter turnout. By 11 am, the same doubled to about 24%.
The Wayanad constituency has 12 lakh plus eligible voters. At a booth in St.Antony's school in Nenmeni Panchayat in Sultan Bathery, the polling was suspended briefly after the electronic voting machine (EVM) developed a snag after about 60 votes were cast. The voting resumed later after the problem was fixed.
In recent days, Wayanad has been receiving good showers in the evening, and that could be one reason why people want to finish voting early, said CH Sajithkumar, a hotelier in Bathery. "It is not very hot here because of rains. I am stepping out to vote now," he said.
The Congress president, who is also contesting from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, has opted Wayanad as his second seat. He is locked in a straight contest with CPI candidate PP Suneer. Gandhi led such a strategic and tactful campaign that he never criticised the CPI, his closest rival, but singled out the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his attacks.
Wayanad seat consists of three Assembly segments of Sultan Bathery, Kalpetta and Mananthawadi in Wayanad district, Nilambur, Wandoor and Ernad in Malappuram district and Thiruvambady in Kozhikode district.
When the AICC president took out his first road show in Kalpetta town on April 4, along with sister Priyanka Vadra after filing his nomination papers, it shook up the sleepy region dotted with tea plantations, attracting tens of thousands of curious people.
Rahul's Amethi papers valid
Amethi district returning officer Ram Manohar Mishra on Monday declared Rahul Gandhi’s election affidavit as valid. His nomination papers came under scrutiny after four Amethi residents and a person from Delhi alleged that they contained discrepancies in regard to his identity and educational qualifications.
They claimed that Rahul Gandhi completed Bachelor of Arts from Rollins College, Florida in 1994 but did not declare it in his affidavit. The complainants also claimed that Rahul completed M.Phil from Trinity College in 2004-2005 and not in 1995 as his affidavit stated.
Objections were also raised about Gandhi’s identity, alleging that his Cambridge University degree mentions his name as "Raul Vinci" and not Rahul Gandhi. One of the complainants, Dhuvra Lal Manohar, alleged that the Congress president had, in 2004, declared that he held shares in a company in Britain named Backops Ltd, whose company records mention his nationality as "British" and address as "the United Kingdom".
Another complainant Afzal Waris said that Gandhi’s nomination papers should be rejected on the grounds that the stamp paper used to file them was procured from New Delhi instead of from Amethi. The objections were raised by Amethi residents Afzal Waris, Dhuvra Lal Manohar and Suresh Kumar Shukla, and New Delhi resident Suresh Chandra.
