Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 11 (IANS): Thousands of people lined up on either side of the roads in Wayanad on Tuesday afternoon to welcome their former MP Rahul Gandhi, who is on his first visit to the city following his disqualification from the Lok Sabha last month after being convicted in a 2019 criminal defamation case.

Some local residents claimed that this was the biggest crowd Wayanad had ever witnessed, even more than the crowd that had turned up to greet Rahul Gandhi when he came to file his nomination from this hilly district for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

In 2019, Rahul Gandhi had won the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat by defeating P.P. Suneer of the CPI by a staggering margin of over four lakh votes.

Earlier on Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi along with his sister Priyanka Gandhi landed at Kannur and from there they flew to Kalpetta in Wayanad on a chopper.

After the top state Congress leaders received him at the helipad, all of them got into an open vehicle that moved forward with great difficulty with the crowd jostling to get a glimpse of the Congress leader.