Wayanad wants Priyanka to contest the Lok Sabha election if apex court upholds Gujarat HC verdict against her brother Rahul Gandhi.
Published Jul 21, 2023 | 11:00 AM ⚊ Updated Jul 21, 2023 | 11:00 AM
Women in Wayanad greet Rahul Gandhi. (Supplied)
Amethi in Uttar Pradesh and Wayanad in Kerala are over 2,000 km apart. The distance makes both places different — geographically, linguistically, culturally, and politically.
Wayanad doesn’t have a representative in the Lok Sabha after its elected member, Rahul Gandhi, was disqualified on 24 March, a day after a Gujarat court convicted and sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment in a 2019 defamation case, registered for his comment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname.
Smriti Irani of the BJP represents Amethi. She has visited Wayanad multiple times, perhaps hoping to repeat an Amethi, where she defeated the Gandhi scion in the once-Congress stronghold.
But Wayanad will be different, and tough, for Irani and her party. The woods covering the hills of Wayanad are dark and deep, hiding secrets and dear ones like they hid Pazhassi Raja and his guerillas from the might of the British.
Despite Irani’s overtures to the hilly constituency, many of the voters will back Rahul Gandhi — or any other candidate he may nominate.
However, they expressed hope that the Supreme Court would rule in Gandhi’s favour against the Gujarat High Court upholding the lower court’s verdict.
The Congress received a shot in the arm on 13 July when the Kerala High Court stayed the proceedings by the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Kalpetta for two months against four members of Rahul Gandhi’s now-defunct office in Wayanad.
Rahul Gandhi during one of his visits to Wayanad (Supplied).
The high court order was a jolt to Kerala’s ruling CPI(M), which has been maintaining that a few of the former MP’s office staff had desecrated the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi, a claim that was widely peddled on social media.
Despite joining hands with the Congress elsewhere in the country, the more-than-a-century-old party is viewed by the CPI(M) as its main rival in Kerala.
On 24 June, 2022, activists of the SFI, the CPI(M)’s students’ wing, attacked Gandhi’s office at Kalpetta, the headquarters of Wayanad. They were protesting against Gandhi, accusing him of not preventing a move to declare many parts of Wayanad as buffer zones surrounding the local wildlife sanctuary.
The students, however, were unaware that an MP could do nothing since the Supreme Court had ordered the creation of the buffer zone, and it was the prerogative of the state government to appeal against it. A case was registered against them.
A week after the incident, the police registered a case against Gandhi’s office staff members, Ratheesh Kumar KR, Mujeeb KA, Rahul Sujatha Ravindran, and Noushad V. They were booked under Section 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) of the Indian Penal Code.
Congress’ MP Rahul Gandhi’s Wayanad Office that was vandalised by SFI activists on 24 June in Kainatty near Kalpetta in Wayanad district. (Twitter @vdsatheesan)
The men approached the high court, saying that there was no evidence to prove the charge against them.
The petitioners’ counsel submitted that this second case was registered to counter the first one, and Gandhi’s assistants were made accused later. Referring to the materials submitted by the prosecution, the petitioner’s counsel further contended that none of the witnesses had attributed any role to the petitioners.
According to Kalpetta MLA and Congress leader T Siddique, the high court decision has come as a booster dose for the Congress in Wayanad.
“We have been getting discouraging news from Gujarat for a long time. But the Kerala High Court order is turning out to be a good omen, giving out the message that truth will prevail. Whether the BJP is at the Centre or the CPI(M) in Kerala, nobody can survive too long by fabricating cases and submitting false evidence,” he told South First.
Though disqualified from the Lok Sabha, Gandhi has not forgotten Wayanad, a safe seat the Congress chose for its senior leader after the BJP decided to pit Irani against him in Amethi.
Congress workers in Sulthan Bathery, Wayanad, take out a protest march against the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi on Friday, 24 March. (Supplied)
His popularity, too, has not diminished. The response to his visit in April — after his disqualification — amplified his popularity in the Lok Sabha segment.
“Rahul Gandhi will soon visit Wayanad to greet the people here. He will spend at least three days in the constituency,” IC Balakrishnan, the Congress MLA from Sulthan Bathery in the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, said.
Gandhi, who attended former chief minister Oommen Chandy’s funeral on Thursday, 20 July, will be checking into a ayurveda centre in Kottakal for 15 days’ treatment. Kottakkal, in Malappuram, is close to Wayanad, and he will visit the constituency after completing the treatment.
“He was to visit Wayanad in the first week of July, but it was postponed as he went to Manipur as an icon of peace and co-existence. He is our prized possession, and our bonding with him is always strong,” Balakrishnan told South First.
Kerala, with a significant Christian population, has been closely watching the continuing ethnic strife in Manipur that had left 142 people dead till 4 July, according to a status report that state’s government submitted to the Supreme Court on 10 July.
When asked about the possibility of an adverse Supreme Court verdict on Gandhi’s petition, the Congress leaders in Wayanad did not provide a direct answer.
However, party workers and a majority of voters view Priyanka Gandhi as the perfect substitute for Rahul Gandhi.
“If the court won’t permit Rahul to contest the next election, we will elect Priyanka Gandhi. We know the party will field Priyanka in such a situation. It will be a historical development,” KP Biljo, a Congress worker at Cheeral, said.
Several other Congress workers, too, shared the same view with South First. For the Congress and its alliance partners in Kerala, the candidate in Wayanad is crucial in determining the UDF’s electoral fortunes in the state.
In the previous election, Gandhi’s presence in Wayanad helped the UDF win 19 out of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala.
The Congress workers hope that Rahul and Priyanka could swing votes in favour of the UDF in Kerala, and either of them could easily win in Wayanad.
“Rahul’s disqualification has become a blessing in disguise for the Congress in Wayanad. People in Wayanad now find a much stronger Rahul, who is effectively taking on the BJP and directly challenging Modi,” Left writer and political observer OK Johnny said.
“Wayanad felt proud when his Bharat Jodo Yatra became a success. Even the CPI(M)’s approach, which earlier allowed the SFI to discredit him, has changed. The party had to raise its voice against Gandhi’s disqualification. It would be difficult for the CPI(M) to fight Gandhi or his nominee in Wayanad,” he told South First.
The LDF normally fields a CPI candidate in Wayanad. At the national level, CPI maintains good equations with the Congress and Gandhi.
Though the Election Commission was earlier vocal about conducting a by-poll in Wayanad, no initiative is seen now. Officials said there would not be a by-election even if the Supreme Court upholds the Gujarat High Court’s verdict.
“Conducting a by-election in Wayanad would not benefit the BJP politically. In the given situation, only a nominee of Rahul will win the election and that too with a thumping majority. It would send out wrong signals which would be uncomfortable for the BJP at the national level,” Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) district secretary Echome Gopi opined.
Rahul Gandhi with the flood-hit families in Wayanad. (File photo/Supplied)
Among the seven Assembly constituencies that form the Wayanad Lok Sabha segment, Nilambur, Vandoor, Eranad, and Thiruvambady are the strongholds of the Muslim League. In Kalpetta and Sulthan Bathery, the Congress is enjoys considerable clout.
The Left had a slight advantage in Mananthavady, but the constituency opted for Gandhi in the previous election. “For Wayanad, there is no choice other than Rahul. Our support for him is solid, and Kerala would vote for him in the Lok Sabha election,” IUML’s former MLA KM Shaji said.
Meanwhile, Smriti Irani visited Wayanad multiple times to launch centrally-sponsored schemes and to address public meetings, mostly targeting Gandhi.
“Smriti will not make any impact in Wayanad. Wayanad is not Amethi,” K Raveendran, a tourism promoter at Vythiri in Wayanad, said.
“In the past four years, he steadfastly stood with us. He visited us regularly and understood our problems. He was vocal about our concerns. Above all, he gave Wayanad a new address. We have no leader other than Rahul. If the Supreme Court does not permit him to fight the election, Congress must field Priyanka,” he told South First.
KV Sasi, a district panchayat member from the Congress, said Priyanka was with her brother whenever he visited Wayanad.
The CPI(M), however, said it would contest the poll.
“We are least concerned about the Congress candidate. The Left will field a candidate and will give a tough fight. We aim to win all the constituencies in Kerala,” said P Gagarin, CPI(M)’s Wayanad district secretary.
He added that the national-level adjustments between the Congress and CPI(M) would not apply to Kerala.
