The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Monday announced Annie Raja as its candidate for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, currently held by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi. Annie, who will contest her first ever election this year, is a member of the CPI’s national executive and the wife of party general secretary D Raja. She is also the general secretary of the National Federation of Indian Women and has been involved in politics since her school days. Though the CPI is a member of the Opposition INDIA bloc with the Congress, which had won the Wayanad seat with a record margin of 4.3 lakh votes in the 2019 elections, the Left party has publicly asked Rahul to contest the upcoming polls from another seat. In an interview with The Indian Express, she speaks about her poll debut and the prospect of contesting against an ally in the Congress. Excerpts: After decades in politics, you are making your electoral debut. Your first reaction? The party has given me many organisational responsibilities in the last 40-45 years. I have also been working among women, mobilising them and taking up their issues. Now the party has given me a new responsibility. The CPI, as also the CPI(M), are part of the INDIA bloc. Now you are going to take on one of the frontline leaders of the INDIA bloc in Wayanad. In Kerala, it has been Left Democratic Front (LDF) versus the United Democratic Front (UDF) for several years now. In 2019 also, the CPI had contested the Wayanad seat. In the LDF alliance, the CPI has been given four seats and Wayanad is one of them. The other seats are Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur and Mavelikkara. The CPI had contested all these seats last time also. In Kerala, it is LDF versus UDF, and there is no INDIA alliance in the state. When INDIA alliance parties … had meetings … that time itself they had made their stand very clear that … Left and secular, democratic parties should come together. Even at that time Kerala was made an exception. You will be up against sitting Congress MP Rahul Gandhi. I think good sense will prevail. Since we have announced the candidates … what is the gain for the Congress or Rahul Gandhi in contesting from Kerala? At the national level, the Congress and the Left parties are fighting against the fascist forces – the RSS and the BJP. So the Congress has many options for a safer seat for its leadership. It can be in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka … so many places. What is the politics of the Congress … in terms of the larger picture? If they are really, sincerely fighting against these fascist forces … then they will have to think. It is their prerogative. When you question the CPI … remember last time also the CPI had contested. (The Congress has) many options. We are not contesting in hundreds of seats. We are contesting in only a handful of seats. So Rahul Gandhi should not contest from Wayanad? I am not saying that. What I am saying is … Rahul or the Congress … I will not take individual names. The Congress should make clear, what is its politics? Do they want to see the RSS-BJP defeated or do they want to see the Left cornered and defeated? That is the question. It is not only the responsibility of the CPI. Even in the Telangana Assembly elections, they had promised us two seats. But at the last minute, they said somebody from the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) or BJP joined and they took away one of the seats. Your husband and CPI general secretary D Raja shares a good personal equation with Rahul Gandhi. Does that equation complicate the electoral battle a bit? When the CPI and the Left front announce their candidates in an election … our fight is to win the seat and defeat the RSS-BJP. There is no friendly or unfriendly aspect. Sonia (Gandhi) ji is close; I can say I have a good, friendly relationship with her. Even with Rahul … there is a good, friendly relationship. The question is not of friendship … the question is of politics. The main threat to this country today is the RSS-BJP fascist forces. They have destroyed the Constitution and its values. They have … virtually divided the people based on their religion. So we need to save this country. Initially, there was some unease in a section of the CPI in Kerala about your candidature. Do you think it is unfair that you are seen as the wife of the general secretary and not as a leader in your own right? I started my political work at the age of 8 as a student, mobilising tribal parents and encouraging them to send their children to school … because they were all my friends. My candidature was a unanimous decision. In a communist party … when we discuss something, it is not imposing one’s views on the other. Everyone has the chance to express their views freely and frankly. But finally, when the party makes a decision … it is for the benefit of the party and everyone accepts and agrees. During discussions, many things must have come out, but what is the final outcome? A unanimous decision on the candidates.
