Wayanad, the hilly constituency in Kerala that sent Rahul Gandhi to the Lok Sabha in 2019 and 2024 with huge margins, is gearing up for a by-election, with the senior Congress leader choosing to retain the Rae Bareli seat in Uttar Pradesh.
The national leadership has ensured that Rahul's exit from Wayanad does not cause any disappointment to the Congress in the state, for it is Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who will now contest from the seat.
To elaborate, the Congress in Kerala – which won 18 of the 20 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls – will have Priyanka as the leading force in not just the upcoming by-election but also the 2026 Assembly polls to defeat its bitter rival CPI(M) and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) it heads.
The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), despite winning 19 out of the 20 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, was crushed by the LDF in the subsequent Assembly elections of 2021, winning 99 seats out of 140. As the Left came back to power for a second term for the first time in Kerala's history, Pinarayi Vijayan became the chief minister yet again.
With the UDF and the LDF sharing the political domain in Kerala as the two mighty political entities – leaving not much space for the aspiring BJP – each election is crucial for both fronts.