The Election Commission on Tuesday announced by-elections to Wayanad and Nand Lok Sabha seats and 48 assembly constituencies. A by-election will be held on November 13 for the Wayanad assembly seat. Results will be announced on November 23. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi vacated Wayanad Lok Sabha seat and chose to retain Rai Bareilly’s seat. After the election date was announced, the Congress also announced the election of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat. This is Priyanka Gandhi’s first election campaign.
Since becoming active in politics in 2019, Priyanka Gandhi was earlier considered a potential challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi. She is also the bastion of the Rai Bareilly family and the veteran of the Chinese Congress Sonia ·Gandhi’s successor. However, the Congress has decided to field him from Wayanad. Under such circumstances, people are also discussing what are the advantages and disadvantages of this decision of Congress?
In fact, in this year’s Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi contested from two seats while Priyanka Gandhi maintained a distance. Following this, there were speculations that if Rahul Gandhi wins the election to both seats, Priyanka Gandhi can contest the by-election from the one seat that fell vacant due to her resignation. Things happened exactly the same. Congress has announced that Priyanka Gandhi will contest the elections from Wayanad seat. What benefits does the Congress stand to gain if Priyanka contests from Wayanad?
North-South balance:
Although the BJP is strong in north India, the party is still finding a political foothold in the south outside Karnataka. In this case, the South was like a safe passage to Congress. Last time too, Rahul Gandhi had chosen the Wayanad seat from Kerala along with Amity and won too. This time, when Rahul Gandhi won from a seat in the North and kept it in his hands, the big challenge for the Congress is not to send a message to the South that the party is only treating it as a lackey Same use. Fielding Priyanka will send a message to the people of the South that the Congress party also pays full attention to them.
Will help in Kerala elections:
The Congress-led alliance is far from power in Kerala. In the 2021 Kerala elections, the Left Alliance also won the mandate of the ruling government for the second consecutive time. The Congress party’s better performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and Rahul Gandhi’s emergence as Wayanad MP did not have much impact on the outcome of the Kerala election. The Congress hopes that Priyanka Gandhi’s presence in Wayanad will see a positive impact in the Kerala elections and her presence here will also help the party’s campaign.
Good Speakers in Parliament:
Although this is Priyanka Gandhi’s first election, she has long been handling Sonia Gandhi’s election preparations in Rai Bareilly and Rahul Gandhi in Amethi. During this campaign, Priyanka was also seen as a star campaigner in the Congressional race. The way Priyanka Gandhi has countered the BJP’s attacks without raising any controversy is said to be promising from the Congress’s point of view as well. Now, if Priyanka Gandhi enters the Lok Sabha, the Congress will get a good spokesperson who can express her views powerfully in fluent Hindi during discussions in the House.
What will Congress suffer if Priyanka contests the elections?
Priyanka Gandhi’s debut on the campaign trail in Wayanad will not only bring benefits to the Congress party. Congress may also bear the consequences of this decision. If Priyanka contests the elections and enters Parliament, the opposition will have an opportunity to use nepotism to corner the Congress. Sonia Gandhi is already a member of the Lok Sabha and Rahul Gandhi will also enter the Lok Sabha and now if Priyanka Gandhi also enters the Lok Sabha, the BJP will have another opportunity to attack the issue of nepotism.
