New Delhi (TIP)- Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s electoral debut set in motion from Thursday, November 28, with her taking oath as a member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha along with party leader Ravindra Vasantrao Chavan, who was sworn in as MP fron Nanded.
With Priyanka Gandhi’s victory, for the first time in decades, all three members of the Nehru-Gandhi family—Sonia, Rahul, and Priyanka—are now in Parliament.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra reached Parliament with her mother, while her MP brother Rahul Gandhi and husband Robert Vadra were also Parliament for her oath-taking.
Priyanka Gandhi won the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat with a margin of 4,10,931 votes in the recently concluded round of bypolls, which took place alongside Maharashtra and Jharkhand Assembly elections 2024.
The Wayanad Lok Sabha seat was vacated by Priyanka Gandhi’s brother, Rahul Gandhi, who had won from there in the Lok Sabha elections this year but had also secured the family bastion Rae Bareli constituency. Rahul Gandhi’s decision to resign from the Wayanad seat and retain the Rae Bareli constituency after winning the two seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in April necessitated the Wayanad bypoll.
Wayanad, a Congress stronghold, witnessed a triangular contest among Priyanka Gandhi, BJP’s Navya Haridas, and Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Sathyan Mokeri.
Priyanka Gandhi contested the Wayanad seat as a candidate of the United Democratic Front (UDF).
Congress leader Ravindra Vasantrao Chavan won with 5,86,788 votes the bypoll in Nanded Lok Sabha seat, which fell vacant following the death of the sitting party MP, Vasantrao Balwantrao Chavan. The Wayanad win marks the electoral debut of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who will now be sitting in Lok Sabha along with her brother Rahul Gandhi, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the House. Their mother, Sonia Gandhi, is a Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan.
Due to a low voter turnout, Priyanka Gandhi received 6,22,338 votes, less than Rahu Gandhi’s tally of 647,445 votes during the April Lok Sabha election in the constituency. However, her margin of 410,931 votes surpassed his lead of 364,422 votes, making her maiden victory extra special. Source: HT
Tag: Priyanka Gandhi
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Priyanka Gandhi takes oath as Lok Sabha MP; all Gandhis in Parliament now
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Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll: Priyanka’s lead surges to 350,000 votes
WAYANAD, KERALA (TIP): Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday appeared to be heading towards her maiden electoral win, from Wayanad in Kerala, after registering an impressive lead of over 3.5 lakh votes against her nearest CPI rival, with party leaders and ally IUML predicting a big win for her amid the counting trends.
The Congress-led UDF’s candidate from this hill constituency, Priyanka on Saturday extended her lead by close to 3.5 lakh votes after four hours of counting of the ballots in the Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll, according to the Election Commission.
Reacting to the lead achieved by Priyanka, Congress’ ally Indian Union Muslim League and Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said she would get more votes than her brother Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha polls in April this year and will win by a record margin.
“An amazing first trend on counting day is the massive early lead for our leader @priyankagandhi ji in Wayanad, Kerala, by-election. People of Wayanad are surely going to record in victory margins today and Priyanka ji will make Parliamentary debut with a grand win,” Reddy said in a post on ‘X’.
IUML supremo Panakkad Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal said that going by the trends, Priyanka will get more votes than what Rahul got and the majority she achieves would also be higher than that of her brother. A similar view was expressed by IUML’s national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty.
According to the latest EC figures, Priyanka had a lead of 3,68,319 with 5,57,451 votes. LDF’s Sathyan Mokeri was behind her with 1,89,132 votes and NDA’s Navya Haridas was in the third spot with 1,02,849 votes.
Rahul had got 6,47,445 votes and won by a margin of 3,64,422 votes against his nearest rival, CPI’s Annie Raja, in the LS polls this year. In 2019, he got 7,06,367 votes and had won by a margin of 4,31,770 votes. After winning from Rae Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh as well, in this year’s polls, Rahul vacated the Wayanad seat, and the party nominated his sister Priyanka, paving the way for her electoral debut.
The bypoll turnout in Wayanad, which has over 14 lakh registered voters, was around 65 per cent, a decline from close to 74 per cent in the Lok Sabha polls held in April this year and much lower than the over 80 per cent turnout in the hill constituency in the 2019 general elections. The counting of votes commenced at 8 am with postal ballots being taken up first. The strong rooms, where the EVMs were kept, were opened more than an hour before counting began.
The bypoll for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat was held on November 13. Of the 16 candidates who contested, the main contenders are Priyanka, ruling CPI(M)-led LDF’s Sathyan Mokeri, a political veteran, and BJP-headed NDA’s Navya Haridas.
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George Abraham, Vice-Chair of IOCUSA, condemns the attack on farmers and detention of Priyanka Gandhi
NEW YORK (TIP): Vice-Chair of IOCUSA George Abraham has condemned the attack on farmers in Lakhimpur-Kheri and detention of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra by the authorities in UP. “There is a total breakdown of democratic process in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Isn’t it strange that the BJP leaders who incited the riots or the son of a union minister who ran the vehicle over the farmers are remaining free-at-large while a political leader who went to investigate and empathize with the victims is in detention? We strongly condemn the attack on farmers and detention of Priyanka Gandhi from visiting and empathizing with the bereaved families. The incident in Lakhimpur Keri in Uttar Pradesh shows that the BJP government’s anti-farmer stand has taken an even uglier turn. Holding a peaceful protest is a fundamental right and it cannot be denied,” said George Abraham. A purported video of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra in which he is heard telling farmers that he would discipline them in two minutes appears to have upset the farmers before the violent incident. “Face me, it will take just two minutes to discipline you fellows,” the two-time BJP MP from Kheri is heard purportedly saying on social media. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar also made a controversial remark recently that encouraged violence while speaking at a farmers’ event in the state. He called upon 1000 volunteers from different regions to pick up sticks and fight “furious farmers.” This has become a pattern of BJP governance where various leaders of their party often make highly provocative and reprehensible statements that result in violence and lives lost. It is a shame that the Modi government that raises FIR against innocuous statements by ordinary citizens appears indifferent to eschewing their cadre’s own inflammatory comments. Priyanka Gandhi also tweeted, “the BJP government is doing politics of crushing the farmers and finishing them. Today’s incident shows that this government is using politics to mow down farmers. This is the farmer’s country.” IOCUSA calls upon the BJP government to reestablish the dialogue with farmers and bring this long-simmering dispute to an end.
(Based on a press release)