Ms Gandhi said she will not let the people of Wayanad feel her brother’s absence.
Making two major announcements, the Congress on Monday said that Rahul Gandhi has decided to give up the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala in favour of the family bastion of Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh and, capping years of speculation, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is finally making her electoral debut from the constituency he is vacating.
Announcing the decisions after a high-level Congress meeting, party president Mallikarjun Kharge, who was flanked by the Gandhi siblings, said the call on which constituency to vacate was taken now as the last day for doing so is Tuesday.
“The party has decided that Rahul Gandhi should keep the Raebareli seat because it has been close to him and his family for generations. The people of the constituency and people in the Congress feel this will be good for the party as well. More importantly, he has received love from the people of Wayanad and people there want him to retain the seat. But the rules don’t allow this. So we have decided that Priyanka ji will contest from Wayanad,” he said in Hindi.
“Priyanka Gandhi had said ‘ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon’ (I am a girl, I can fight) and this ladki can fight from there (Wayanad) now,” he said to laughter as he went on to thank Ms Gandhi for the Congress’ success in Amethi, Raebareli and other constituencies.
When a reporter asked about Mr Kharge’s earlier claim, made in jest, that he would initiate disciplinary action if Rahul Gandhi did not follow the Congress Working Committee’s decision, the party president sought to deflect but Mr Gandhi chimed in with “a threat has been given”, eliciting more laughter.
‘Tough Decision’
The Congress leader said he has an emotional connection with both Raebareli and Wayanad and expressed his gratitude for the love has got from the people in the Kerala constituency while he was a Member of Parliament from there the past five years.
“Priyanka will contest from Wayanad, but I will also go there frequently and we will fulfil all the promises we made to the people there. I have an old connection with Raebareli and I am happy to represent them, but it wasn’t an easy decision. It was a tough one. The people of Wayanad stood with me and supported me. They gave me energy to fight in a very difficult time. I will be available for the people of Wayanad,” Mr Gandhi said.
“I am confident she (Priyanka) will win the election and she will be a very good representative. The people of Wayanad can think about it like this: They now have two MPs, one is my sister and the other is me. My doors are always open to you for the rest of my life and I love every person in Wayanad,” he added.
‘Both Constituencies Getting Two MPs’
When Ms Gandhi was asked for a reaction, she said she was very happy and would not let the people of Wayanad feel her brother’s absence.
“As he said, he will come many times with me. But I will work as hard and try to be a good representative. I have a very old connection with Raebareli and I have worked there for 20 years. That connection cannot break. I will help bhaiyya (big brother) in Raebareli and we will be available in both constituencies,” she said.
Rahul Gandhi interjected and said both constituencies are getting two MPs.
Asked if she was nervous, Ms Gandhi said, “Not at all.”
Why Raebareli?
Mr Gandhi had won in Wayanad in 2019 despite suffering a shock defeat to Smriti Irani in his bastion of Amethi. In the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections, he won again in Wayanad by a margin of 3.64 lakh votes.
This was eclipsed by his performance in Raebareli – helped by Sonia Gandhi’s emotional appeal to voters that she was handing her son to them – which he won with a margin of 3.9 lakh votes.
The Raebareli seat was held by Sonia Gandhi since 2004 until she moved to the Rajya Sabha earlier this year. Cementing its status as a Gandhi family bastion is the fact that it was also represented by Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother and former PM Indira Gandhi, and her husband Feroze Gandhi.
While Rahul Gandhi was not inclined to give up Wayanad, what also worked in favour of Raebareli was the fact that it is in Uttar Pradesh, home to the largest number of Lok Sabha seats in the country, Congress sources said.
The astounding performance of the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance in the state, where it won 43 of 80 constituencies – reducing the BJP from 62 to 33 – also played a role in the decision-making.
Priyanka Gandhi’s Debut
The ‘will she-won’t she’ around Ms Gandhi contesting elections has been around since at least the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when it had been speculated that she could challenge PM Modi in the Varanasi constituency at a time when the Congress was struggling to halt the BJP juggernaut.
After that didn’t happen, Ms Gandhi herself had said she wasn’t ruling out contesting the Uttar Pradesh elections in 2022, when she was the Congress General Secretary for the state. She had, in fact, hinted that she could be the chief ministerial candidate, only to say hours later that she had meant it in a tongue-in-cheek way.
Ahead of the 2024 elections, the speculation was almost seen as a certainty. It was being reported that Priyanka Gandhi would contest from Raebareli and her brother would fight to win back Amethi.
Sources had said Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge had asked the Gandhi siblings to take a decision, but had let it be known that he would like both to contest.
Ms Gandhi, had, however, chosen not to. Sources close to her had said that she did not want to give the BJP a reason to hurl allegations of dynastic politics at the Congress given that her brother and mother were already members of Parliament.
