Hours after the Election Commission announced the dates for the bye-elections to two Kerala Assembly seats and the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, on Tuesday, October 15, the Congress was off the blocks first and named Rahul Mamkootathil as its candidate for the Palakkad Assembly constituency and former MP Ramya Haridas to the Chelakkara constituency, which is a Scheduled Castes (SC) reserved seat. The party had already announced Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as its candidate in Wayanad.

The bye-polls in Kerala will be held on November 13 and votes will be counted on November 23.

Rahul Mamkootathil is the Youth Congress President and this will be his first electoral outing. Ramya Haridas had earlier represented the Alathur Lok Sabha seat from 2019 to 2024 but failed to retain it in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, when she was defeated by State Devaswom and SC/ST Welfare Minister K Radhakrishnan.

The Assembly bye-elections at Palakkad and Chelakkara were necessitated after sitting legislators Shafi Paramabil (Congress) and Radhakrishnan (CPI(M)), respectively, vacated the seats after winning the Lok Sabha polls. Meanwhile, the Wayanad parliamentary constituency fell vacant as the winner, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, chose to retain the traditional family borough of Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh. The Congress subsequently announced his sister and party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi as its candidate in what will be her poll debut.

The focus is all set to be on Wayanad, which Rahul Gandhi won by a decreased amount as compared to his over 4.60 lakh margin in 2019. Though the victory of Priyanka Gandhi seems certain, the only thing that remains to be seen is if she will better her brother's margin.

For the ruling Left, the two Assembly bye-elections will be contested by the alliance major, CPI(M), while the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat goes to the CPI. The BJP has high hopes in Palakkad, wherein the 2021 Assembly polls, their candidate 'Metroman' E Sreedharan gave a fright to Shafi Parambil before losing by less than 4,000 votes and, hence it could shape up to be a triangular contest, while at Chelakkara, it would be a direct fight between the CPI(M) and the Congress.