Hours after the Election Commission of India announced the poll schedule for the assembly elections and the bypolls, the Congress on Tuesday named Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as its candidate for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat bypoll. The bypoll is slated to be held next month on November 13.
With this announcement, the AICC general secretary, who has been campaigning for her brother and the grand old party, will finally be making her electoral debut after over two decades. The 52-year-old leader will be entering into the political fray after Rahul Gandhi, former Wayanad MP, vacated the seat after winning the Lok Sabha polls from Rae Bareli constituency. Although he had contested and won both Wayanad and Rae Bareli, he chose to go with the latter, paving way for Priyanka Gandhi to make her debut.
Priyanka Gandhi has also been spotted by her mother Sonia Gandhi's side during the campaigning for 2004 Lok Sabha elections for Amethi. She recently also campaigned for her party for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections 2024. However, despite being involved in the politics for so many years, she did not contest elections herself.
In another development, the Congress has also named Rahul Mamkootathil as its candidate from the Palakkad Assembly seat and Ramya Haridas from Chelakkara Assembly seat in Thrissur.
Wayanad Lok Sabha seat bypolls will be held along with the bypolls of 47 assembly seats across 14 states on November 13, as announced by the Election Commission on October 15. Bypolls to Uttarakhand's Kedarnath Assembly seat and Maharashtra's Nanded Lok Sabha seat will be held on November 20.
The counting of votes and result declaration is scheduled for November 23.
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