Congress President Rahul Gandhi arrived on a three-day visit to his Lok Sabha constituency of Wayanad in Kerala on Friday.

In the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, Gandhi won the Wayanad seat against his closest rival, PP Suneer of the Communist Party of India, by over 4 lakh votes.

Gandhi arrived at the Kozhikode airport around 2.00 pm and is scheduled to participate in over 15 public receptions across the constituency. Wayanad constituency is spread over three districts in northern Kerala – Wayanad, Malappuram and Kozhikode. He was received by thousands of party workers and leaders at the airport. This is the first public function attended by the Congress president after his party’s major setback in the Lok Sabha elections, in which it secured only 52 out of 543 Parliamentary seats.

Gandhi met senior leaders of the United Democratic Front, including Ramesh Chennithala and PK Kunhalikutty. “He will also take part in roadshows at Nilambur and Eranad,” said senior Congress leader and Wandoor MLA AP Anil Kumar.

He will be given a reception at Kalpetta, Kambalkadu, Panamaram, Mananthavadi, Pulpally and Sultan Batheri and will also attend a roadshow in Kozhikode Assembly constituency on June 9, before departing for Delhi.

The Congress’s resurgence in Kerala has derailed the Bharatiya Janata Party’s attempts to wedge a foot in the door in a state where it has never won a single parliamentary seat so far. The Congress won 19 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala out of the 20 seats. This was even as Gandhi was defeated in Amethi, a Congress stronghold, by Union minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani by a margin of 55,120 votes.