Victory is double sweet for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who secured an easy win in both Kerala’s Wayanad and Uttar Pradesh’s Raebareli in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Wayanad, of which he is incumbent Member of Parliament (MP), gave Rahul 6,47,445 votes, that is, 59.69% vote share, marking a fall from the 64.67% votes he secured in the 2019 elections. Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Annie Raja lost to him by a margin of 3,64,422 votes.
In Raebareli, which was previously represented by Sonia Gandhi, Rahul has secured 687649 votes (66.17%), leading by 3,90,030 votes, while BJP’s Dinesh Pratap Singh has got only 2,97,619 votes (28.64%).
His victory in the two constituencies necessitates a bye-election in the seat that he vacates, although he is yet to decide which constituency that will be. Notably, Rahul Gandhi’s candidature in Raebareli was announced after polling concluded in Kerala, inviting huge criticism.
In Wayanad, the LDF has been able to increase their vote share from 25.24% in 2019 to 26.09% this time around. Annie Raja secured 2,83,023 votes, which is more than the 2019 number of 2,74,597.
Meanwhile, NDA’s Wayanad candidate K Surendran, who is also the president of the BJP in Kerala, was relegated to the third place with 1,41,045 votes. However, the BJP has managed to increase their vote share by 13%, compared to the 7.25% in 2019, that is, 78,816 votes.
In Wayanad, Rahul’s decision to contest against CPI became a topic of discussion as the Congress and CPI are partners in the INDIA bloc. He especially faced criticism from the LDF leadership, including Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who slammed him for “not directly contesting against the BJP”. Meanwhile, the BJP used his candidature in Wayanad as an example to criticise the divisions between the INDIA bloc.
However, right after the Kerala polls, Congress announced Rahul’s candidacy in Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh, in the seat recently vacated after Sonia Gandhi took oath as Rajya Sabha member. Since 2004, Sonia Gandhi has served as the MP from Raebareli.