Priyanka reaches Wayanad, to file her nomination today
A public meeting is also scheduled in Kalpetta town following the roadshow at which senior leaders of the Congress are expected to speak and campaign for Priyanka in her debut election.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is scheduled to file her nomination papers on Wednesday for the upcoming bypolls in Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala.
Priyanka and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi reached Sulthan Bathery town in Wayanad late night on Tuesday. They flew down to Mysuru and reached Sulthan Bathery by road, Congress sources said.
Priyanka also made a surprise appearance at the home of a voter in Sulthan Bathery late on Tuesday.
“(Former Wayanad MP) Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge will reach Wayanad on Wednesday morning. Rahul and Priyanka will lead a massive roadshow through the streets of Kalpetta town starting 10am from the vicinity of the new bus stand. Later, Priyanka will submit her nomination papers at the district collectorate,” Shamsad Marakkar, Congress district vice-president, told HT.
A public meeting is also scheduled in Kalpetta town following the roadshow at which senior leaders of the Congress are expected to speak and campaign for Priyanka in her debut election.
Marakkar said that no other events are planned for the day and that the three members of the Gandhi family will fly back to Delhi on Wednesday itself. “The election committee conventions of the Congress will continue in Wayanad. Priyanka is expected to return for the campaign on October 28,” he said.
Apart from Sonia Gandhi and Kharge, three Congress chief ministers including Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar, Himachal SM Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu are expected to mark their attendance at the proceedings to mark Priyanka’s debut election.
Leaders of the Congress-led UDF including state president K Sudhakaran, LoP VD Satheesan, deputy LoP and IUML leader PK Kunhalikutty and IUML state president Panakkad Sayed Sadik Ali Shihab Thangal have already reached Wayanad for the event.
Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal said thousands of workers of the UDF will take part in the roadshow in a show of strength of the party in a constituency it has always won since 2009.
The bypoll was necessitated after Rahul Gandhi vacated the constituency and chose Rae Bareilly, the second seat, he won in this year’s Lok Sabha elections. Gandhi had won the Wayanad seat by a margin of 3.6 lakh votes this year, defeating CPI’s Annie Raja. The Congress subsequently fielded Priyanka in the bypoll in Wayanad.
“The people of Wayanad hold a special place in my heart, and I can’t imagine a better representative for them than my sister, @priyankagandhi. I’m confident she will be a passionate champion of Wayanad’s needs and a powerful voice in Parliament,” Rahul Gandhi posted on social platform X on Tuesday.
Even though Priyanka is facing her debut electoral contest, she has ample experience in elections, having managed her mother Sonia’s Rae Bareilly constituency in the 2014 and 2019 elections. In 2019, she was given the charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, but could not deliver satisfactory results for the party. She led the party’s campaign in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in 2022. However, the party fared poorly, winning just two seats, down from seven it won in the last election.
Priyanka is set to face Sathyan Mokeri of the CPI and Navya Haridas of the BJP in the Nov 13 election.
