No help from Centre for Wayanad rehabilitation: LDF candidate Sathyan Mokeri

Wayanad, Kerala: Intensifying his bypoll campaign in Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, LDF candidate Sathyan Mokeri on Saturday blamed the BJP-ruled Centre for not providing any help for rehabilitation of the landslides-affected people of the hill district.

Mokeri, who is pitted against Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and BJP's Navya Haridas, said that there has been a "negative approach" from the side of the Central government on providing aid for rehabilitation work.

The CPI leader also visited various survivors of the landslides at their rented accommodations and said that the rehabilitation work being carried out by the ruling Left government in the state was a model for the whole world.

He also met with 24-year-old Shruti who lost her entire family of nine, including her parents and younger sister, in the devastating landslides that hit three villages of Wayanad on July 30.

Subsequently, she also lost her fiance, Jenson, who died in a road accident less than two months after the landslides. The couple, initially set to tie the knot in December with fanfare, were planning to have a simple court-registered marriage in September.

Mokeri had contested the Lok Sabha polls from Wayanad in 2014 and significantly reduced the then Congress candidate M I Shanavas's victory margin to around 20,000 votes.

The senior CPI leader is known for his work addressing issues in the agricultural sector.

Of his two rivals, Priyanka is making her electoral debut and Haridas has worked for a decade as a councillor in the Kozhikode Corporation.

The by-election for Wayanad LS seat became necessary after Rahul Gandhi, who won the Lok Sabha polls from there and Rae Bareli constituency, decided to vacate Wayanad.