Congress President Rahul Gandhi
Congress President Rahul Gandhi is being challenged by KE Rahul Gandhi from Kottayam and K Raghul Gandhi from Coimbatore, in the Lok Sabha election for Wayanad in Kerala
Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who has filed his nomination from the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, will have to fight it out against—apart from the main rivals—two namesakes and another with Gandhi surname.
The last date for withdrawal of nominations in Kerala is Monday, April 8 and the polling takes place on April 23 to elect 20 Lok Sabha members.
The namesakes are: Independent candidate, 33 year old KE Rahul Gandhi, who hails from Kottayam district; 30-year-old K Raghul Gandhi from Coimbatore and is a member of the Agila India Makkal Kazhagam party; and the third person, also an Independent candidate, is 40-year-old KM Shivprasad Gandhi from Thrissur.
According to the affidavits they have filed, KE Rahul Gandhi has an M. Phil degree in Linguistics and a social worker with no PAN, while his wife, although a housewife, has a PAN.
Both of them have no liabilities but have Rs 5,000 cash in hand and just Rs 515 in the banks. They have no immovable assets.
K Raghul Gandhi from Coimbatore works as a reporter and his wife is a dental technician.
While both are income tax payers and have filed their return that shows that he has a total income of Rs 1,99,000, while his spouse shows Rs 2,00,000 for 2018-19 and the two have reported a liability of Rs 1,45,000.
Coming to KM Shiva Prasad Gandhi, he is a Sanskrit teacher and his wife is a computer operator and both are IT payees and own assets and have liabilities too.
Unlike in the last Lok Sabha elections, though, the electronic voting machines now bear photos of each candidate—a step taken to trump an old trick by political rivals of putting up candidates with matching names.
Inputs by Team Lede