Wayanad, Nov 1 (IANS ) After two rounds of poll campaigns at Wayanad for her debut election, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi will return for another round of electioneering from Sunday.
On the day Priyanka Gandhi submitted her nomination papers, her brother and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi was present, though he did not accompany her during the second round of campaigning.
However, on Sunday LoP Rahul Gandhi is also slated to accompany his sister and the duo will address a series of election meetings in the hilly district of Wayanad.
On Sunday the duo will address a joint meeting at Mananthavady, while she will address three other corner meetings and Rahul Gandhi one public rally.
On Monday, Priyanka Gandhi will address five meetings, while her programme schedule from November 5th to 7th will be released later.
Incidentally, so far her campaign has evoked a massive response as she has been able to walk into the hearts of many.
The principal fight for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat is between the Congress’ Priyanka Gandhi, the CPI candidate of the ruling CPI(M)-led LDF, veteran Sathyan Mokeri and the BJP’s young sitting Kozhikode Corporation Councilor Navya Haridas, who is a former software engineer.
In all there are 16 candidates in Wayanad.
Since sitting Lok Sabha member from Wayanad Rahul Gandhi vacated this constituency after he decided to retain Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh, the bye-election became a necessity on this seat.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi won the 2019 General Elections with a margin of 4.60 lakh votes from Wayanad, which came down to 3.64 lakh in the 2024 general elections.
Of the seven Assembly constituencies that come under the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, four are held by the Congress-led UDF, two by the CPI(M) and one was won by the Left-backed Independent legislator P.V. Anvar, who has now split up with the ruling Left and floated his own party.
Ever since Priyanka Gandhi landed in Wayanad, the general feeling among the Congress leaders manning her campaign like Kasargod Lok Sabha member Rajmohan Unnithan, is that they are targeting a margin of over five lakh votes.