Wayanad Bypolls 2024: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra files nomination after roadshow; Rahul, Sonia present

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra filed her nomination papers for the Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll on October 23, Wednesday – paving way for another Gandhi family scion to enter the Parliament. 

The bypoll for Wayanad seat in Kerala, vacated by Priyanka's brother Rahul Gandhi, is scheduled for November 13. 

Priyanka was accompanied by her mother Sonia Gandhi, brother and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge while filing her nomination papers. She held a roadshow with the party leaders before filing nomination at the district collectorate in Kalpetta. 

Priyanka, Rahul and Kharge, addressed the gathering after the roadshow in Wayanad. 

New Beginning

If elected, this will be the first time that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will enter Parliament as a Member of Parliament. This will also be the first time that the three Gandhi family members –Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Priyanka – will be in Parliament together. Rahul is a Lok Sabha MP and Sonia a member of Rajya Sabha.

Rahul Gandhi had won the seat in Kerala, along with Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh in Lok Sabha Elections 2024. Gandhi won the Wayanad seat by a margin of 3,64,422 votes and the Raebareli seat by a margin of 3.9 lakh votes.

Days after the June 4 results, the Congress announced that Rahul will retain the Raebareli seat in Uttar Pradesh and vacate the Wayanad seat paving way for hissister Priyanka Gandhi Vadrato make her electoral debut.

The bypoll to the Wayanad parliamentary seat and 47 Assembly seats will be held on November 13, along with the first phase of polling for the Jharkhand Assembly. The results will be announced on November 23.

The BJP had fielded has fielded Navya Haridas against Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in kerala. The Communist Party of India (CPI) has fielded party veteran Sathyan Mokeri as the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate for the seat.

In active politics since 2019

Since her entry into active politics in 2019, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has often been projected as a possible challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi and also, as a successor to Congress veteran Sonia Gandhi in the family bastion Raebareli.

Earlier, Priyanka was the Congress in-charge of Uttar Pradesh in 2020 assembly polls which the party lost badly. Priyanka gradually emerged as the party's strategist and star campaigner, helping the Congress make impressive gains in some states as well as in the Lok Sabha polls held earlier in the year.