‘Wayanad’s beloved’ – Spotlight on another Gandhi scion as Priyanka Vadra gets ready for electoral debut in bypolls

The stage is set for Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's electoral debut from the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala that could see her enter Parliament five years after joining active politics.

Congress party officially announced her candidature soon after the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the Wayanad bypoll on November 13.

With the Congress fielding the AICC general secretary from Wayanad, party workers put up posters in the constituency which had "Wayanadinte Priyankari (Wayanad's beloved)" written on it.

Priyanka's brother and former Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi had won the seat in Kerala, along with Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh in Lok Sabha Elections 2024. Days after the June 4 results, the Congress announced that Rahul will retain the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency and vacate the Wayanad seat paving way for hissister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to make her electoral debut.

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.

The EC on Tuesday announced bypolls to the Wayanad and Nanded Lok Sabha seats along with48 Assembly constituencies. For Wayanad parliamentary seat and 47 Assembly seats the bypolls will be held on November 13, along with the first phase of polling for the Jharkhand Assembly.

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 Rae Bareli. However, the Congress decided to field her from Wayanad, the parliamentary seat that her elder brother Rahul won for two consecutive elections.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was earlier the Congress in-charge of Uttar Pradesh in 2020 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.

"I am not nervous at all.... I am very happy to be able to represent Wayanad. All I will say is that I will not let them feel his (Rahul Gandhi's) absence. I will work hard and try my best to make everybody happy and be a good representative," Priyanka Gandhi had said after her name was announced for the Wayanad bypoll in June.

Priyanka was made the Congress general secretary in-charge of the crucial eastern Uttar Pradesh region in January 2019 and then as the general secretary in-charge of the entire state. In December 2023, Priyanka Gandhi was made a Congress general secretary "without a portfolio". She emerged as the party's key strategist and later, its star campaigner for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

She also helped strengthen the organisation and led the party's campaign in Himachal Pradesh, where the grand old party wrested power from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Her campaign helped the Congress in the general election, in which the party got 99 seats, up from 52 in 2019.

Priyanka Gandhi is married to businessman Robert Vadra.

With the Congress putting up a surprisingly good show in the Lok Sabha polls, Priyanka Gandhi cemented her position as the party's talisman. Priyanka Gandhi's poll debut comes at a time when the Congress faced electoral defeat in Haryana.

What remains to be seen is if she would be able to steer the Wayanad campaign, along with the canvassing for the Jharkhand and Maharashtra polls, to put the grand old party back on track.

(With PTI inputs)