Priyanka Gandhi Vadra set for electoral debut from Wayanad seat

The Congress on Tuesday evening named senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as its candidate for the November 13 bypolls to the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala, marking her debut in the electoral fray after spending several years in the party organisation.

The party also named state youth Congress president Rahul Mamkootathil as its pick for the Palakkad assembly bypoll and former parliamentarian Ramya Haridas as its nominee for the Chelakkara assembly seat.

Polling in all three constituencies will be held on November 13 and the votes will be counted on November 23. The three seats are among 48 assembly and two parliamentary constituencies that will go to the polls next month.

The Wayanad bypoll was necessitated by resignation of incumbent Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who fought two seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections but chose to retain his Uttar Pradesh seat of Rae Bareli after winning both.

Rahul Gandhi, who had also triumphed in the Kerala seat in 2019, won Wayanad this year by a margin of 364,000, defeating Communist Party of India candidate Annie Raja. He gave up the seat on June 18. On the same day, the Congress named general secretary Priyanka Gandhi as its candidate. The ruling Left Democratic Front and Bharatiya Janata Party are yet to name their picks.

The Congress has held the seat since 2009.

Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal said there was a favourable trend for the party in all the three seats.

“We are extremely optimistic about all the three constituencies. For the past few months, the party organisation has been working over time in all three places and AICC observers are also there. Priyanka Gandhi is expected to visit Wayanad soon to file her nomination papers. Rahul will also be there. The bypolls in the two assembly constituencies will be a referendum on the malgovernance of the LDF government in Kerala,” he said.

The Palakkad and Chelakkara (reserved for scheduled castes) assembly constituencies fell vacant after their respective lawmakers, Shafi Parambil of the Congress and K Radhakrishnan of the Communist Party of India(Marxist) respectively, got elected to the Lok Sabha. While Parambil is currently the MP from Vadakara, Radhakrishnan was elected from the Alathur constituency.

CPI state secretary Binoy Viswam, whose party will fight the bypoll in Wayanad as part of seat-sharing arrangements within the LDF, said his party was ready for the fight. “A candidate who can raise pivotal national issues as well as those of the constituency will be announced. Our party committees will meet on October 17 and the decision will be announced.”

BJP state chief K Surendran said the bypoll results will recalibrate the existing political equations in the state.

“Over the years, it has always been LDF instead of UDF and vice-versa. This political arrangement in the state will be finished with these bypoll results. The BJPs sunrise with victory in Thrissur in the LS polls will be repeated in the bypolls

While the Congress has announced its candidates for the bypolls, the CPI(M)-led LDF and BJP-led NDA have yet to announce their candidates.

The BJP came second in the last two assembly elections in Palakkad and was able to increase its vote share in the Hindu-dominated urban constituency from 29% in 2016 to 35% in 2021, when its candidate E Sreedharan lost.

The Chelakkara seat is considered a stronghold of the CPI(M) in Thrissur district and has picked a CPI (M) legislator six consecutive times. Even in the last Lok Sabha polls, the party enjoyed a majority in the rural, agrarian segment.

J Prabhash, former professor of political science in the University of Kerala, said the Congress will have an edge in Wayanad but predicted thrilling contests in both Palakkad and Chelakkara .