New Delhi. Voting for the by-elections took place in Kerala’s Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, which fell vacant following the resignation of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi. The counting of votes will take place today, Saturday. Priyanka Gandhi leads the initial trends. The BJP has been left behind. Priyanka Gandhi is heading towards a landslide victory in Wayanad. He has so far secured 357,165 votes while CPI candidate Satyan Mokeri has secured 122,130 votes while BJP is in third place. Its candidate Navya Haridas obtained 67,058 votes. Priyanka Gandhi leads with 235,035 votes.
Rahul Gandhi came to Parliament by winning this seat for the second consecutive time in the 2024 general elections. This time he defeated CPI(M) candidate Annie Raja of the Left Democratic Front by over 3 lakh 64 thousand votes. Rahul had resigned from the Wayanad seat while retaining his membership in the Rae Bareli seat of Uttar Pradesh, making his sister Priyanka Gandhi contesting the by-elections here for the first time.
In the last election, 73.57 per cent voting took place in the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat. At that time, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had secured a total of 6,47,445 votes. While her closest rival Annie Raja was limited to just 2,83,023 votes. Similarly, BJP candidate K Surendran, who stood third, got only 141,045 votes.
This time Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi is the candidate of the United Democratic Front (UDF). To contest against him, Satyan Mokeri has been fielded from the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Democratic Front (Shtakru). Navya Haridas is also contesting from the NDA alliance under the leadership of the BJP. In these by-elections, the EVMs determined the fate of a total of 16 candidates.
The Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala has been a high-profile seat in south India. In 2019, after losing the elections in Amethi, Rahul Gandhi contested the elections from here and reached Parliament after winning. He will also win from this seat in 2024. The Kerala seat of Wayanad, situated on the border of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, is not only politically important but its cultural heritage and tradition is also quite rich. Valliyur Kevu Bhagavathi temple and other important religious places have great religious significance. This Lok Sabha constituency has the largest population of scheduled tribes. Black pepper and coffee are grown in abundance here. In fact, for this, Wayanad is known all over the world.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi contested from this seat and got a total of 7,06,367 votes. According to Election Commission data, Rahul Gandhi secured a total of 64.94 per cent votes. At that time, CPI (Marxist) PP Suneer, who was in second place, got only 2,74,597 votes.
Late Congress leader MI Shanavas was elected MP from this seat in 2009 and 2014. After his unfortunate demise in 2018, Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination from this seat in the 2019 elections.
