Priyanka’s Lok Sabha electoral bid from Wayanad supercharges UDF and miffs LDF and BJP
Her candidature ignites a debate about whether or not Congress blindsided Wayanad voters by keeping Mr Gandhi’s second candidature from Rae Bareilly in UP a closely guarded secret till they cast their votes
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s upcoming electoral bid to supplant her brother, Rahul Gandhi, as the party’s MP from the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency has buoyed the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and nettled the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Congress strategises that Ms. Vadra’s pivot to Kerala would invigorate the Opposition’s future electoral campaigns, potentially broadening its path to victory in the 2025 local body elections and beyond.
Congress’s gambit has also raised the discomfiting question of whether the party kept Wayanad voters in the dark about Mr. Gandhi’s second candidature from Rae Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh until after the Lok Sabha elections in Kerala were over, thus denying the electorate in Wayanad the democratic leeway to make an informed choice at the polling booth.
‘Disregard for voters’
Notably, Communist Party of India (CPI) and BJP, two parties on opposing sides of the State’s political spectrum, waded into the political debate, accusing Congress of playing a trick on Wayanad voters by keeping Mr. Gandhi’s decision to contest from Rae Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, a closely guarded secret until polling.
CPI’s LS candidate from Wayanad, Annie Raja, said Congress’s “intrigue-laced duplicity” about Mr. Gandhi’s auxiliary candidature reflected an utter disregard for voters.
Ms. Raja said Congress appeared guided by the mistaken belief that the LDF, not BJP, was its principal enemy in Kerala.
Ms. Raja criticised Congress leader K.C. Venugopal for allegedly insinuating that she owed her candidature from Wayanad to her husband and CPI national general secretary, D Raja. She said Mr. Venugopal’s position reeked of feudal patriarchy and scorn for the agency of women in public life.
CPI State Secretary Binoy Viswam stressed the need to field a strong candidate against Ms. Vadra to stymie a possible drift in anti-Congress votes to the BJP, which had significantly increased its vote share in Wayanad.
The BJP said Mr. Gandhi’s decision to vacate Wayanad LS seat had exposed Congress’s duplicity. It said Mr. Gandhi should have told voters he had a second constituency in mind so the electorate could choose wisely.
BJP leaders, including the party’s State president K. Surendran, and former Union Ministers V. Muraleedharan and Rajiv Chandrasekhar, termed Mr. Gandhi’s move a “betrayal” of Wayanad’s voters.
The BJP also accused Congress of attempting to turn Wayanad into a Nehru family fiefdom by swatting away Indian Union Muslim League’s claim for the seat.
- Telegram
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