As Kerala gears up for the much-awaited bye-elections in both Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi filed her nomination to contest from the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat on Wednesday. October 23. Priyanka is making her electoral debut in Wayanad after her brother and the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, vacated the seat after winning both Wayanad and Rae Bareli seats in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year. Rahul has chosen to represent the Rae Bareli constituency in Uttar Pradesh for this term.
In Wayanad, Priyanka would contest against Communist Party of India (CPI)’s Sathyan Mokeri and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Navya Haridas. Sathyan Mokeri was the MLA representing the Nadapuram constituency in Kozhikode for three terms from 1987 to 2001. Navya Haridas, who was the Kozhikode Corporation Councillor twice, contested from the Kozhikode South Assembly constituency in the 2021 Assembly elections, but was pushed to third place.
Palakkad is expected to witness a fiery three-way contest between the Congress, BJP, and the Left Democratic Front (LDF), after three-time Congress MLA Shafi Parambil secured a victory from the Vadakara Lok Sabha seat and vacated his Palakkad seat.
The Congress party fielded Youth Congress state president Rahul Mankootathil in hopes to retain the seat. The choice of candidate, however, was met with some internal criticism in Congress, with some prominent youth leaders exiting the party. Sarin P, the former Kerala digital media convener of Congress who was expelled for expressing his displeasure with the party’s decision to field Rahul, was announced as an independent candidate for the LDF. While this is the first electoral battle for Rahul, Sarin had contested from the Ottapalam Assembly constituency under the Congress flag in 2021 and lost.
After the recent victory from the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat, the BJP is expecting to repeat the feat in the Kerala Assembly with the candidature of party’s state general secretary C Krishnakumar. He has contested twice in Malampuzha assembly constituency and finished second in 2016 and 2021. This would be the first time he would fight the elections in Palakkad.
In the Chelakkara Assembly constituency, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] expects to retain its seat with the candidature of UR Pradeep, who was the Chelakkara MLA from 2016 to 2021. The seat fell vacant this year after K Radhakrishnan, who became the MLA in 2021, was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) from the Alathur Lok Sabha seat. Pradeep would contest the bye-elections against Congress leader and former Lok Sabha MP Ramya Haridas and BJP’s K Balakrishnan.