Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday filed her nomination for the Lok Sabha bye-election in Kerala’s Wayanad constituency. This is the first time she is contesting an election.
The polling will take place on November 13 and the counting of votes will happen on November 23.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was accompanied by former Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and her husband Robert Vadra.
In the 2024 general elections, Rahul Gandhi won the Wayanad and the Rae Bareli seats but had to retain just one of the constituencies as per the Representation of the People Act.
The bye-election in Wayanad was necessitated after Rahul Gandhi chose to represent Rae Bareli in the Lok Sabha, where he had defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Dinesh Pratap Singh by 3.9 lakh votes. This was the first time Rahul Gandhi won the seat, considered a family stronghold.
In Wayanad, Rahul Gandhi defeated the Communist Party of India’s Annie Raja by a margin of 3.6 lakh votes. He had represented the seat since 2019.
The Congress had announced in June that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will contest the bye-poll in Wayanad whenever the Election Commission scheduled it.
On Wednesday, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra held a roadshow in the Kalpetta town of Wayanad before filing her nomination. Leaders of the state’s Congress-led United Democratic Front were also present.
“When I was 17 years old, I campaigned for the first time for my father [Rajiv Gandhi] in 1989,” she said at a public meeting. “It’s now 35 years, I have campaigned for my mother, my brother and many of my colleagues in different elections. But this is the first time I’m campaigning for myself.”
Rahul Gandhi told supporters that “the people of Wayanad will have two MPs to represent them” in Parliament. “I will be the unofficial MP of the people of Wayanad,” he said.
“Priyanka has always been someone who would sacrifice anything for her family and friends, and this quality will make her an exceptional MP for Wayanad,” the leader of Opposition said on social media. “To her, the people of Wayanad are family. As her brother, I ask you to support and protect her as you have done for me.”
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will face the Communist Party of India’s Sathyan Mokeri and BJP candidate Navya Haridas in the polls.
Mokeri is a former MLA who represented the Nadapuram Assembly seat for three terms between 1987 and 2001. Haridas, the general secretary of BJP Kerala’s Mahila Morcha, is a two-time Kozhikode Municipal Corporation councillor.
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