Priyanka Gandhi readies for Lok Sabha debut in Wayanad

Charisma meets challenge as Priyanka’s campaign revives Congress hopes in southern India

Priyanka Gandhi looks all set to make her debut in the Lok Sabha with campaigning for the Wayanad by poll under full swing. The seat was won by her brother Rahul in this year’s general election but he vacated it after also winning from the family turf of Rae Bareli in UP. Priyanka is the front-runner in the contest and her decision to come to parliament is an excellent one.

Yes, I have heard the old dynasty trope many times over. And while we may now see three members of the Gandhi family in Parliament, the fact is two of them will be there by virtue of having been elected by the people. Dynasty is a reality of Indian politics, something India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not immune to either.

Just look at the seats for Maharashtra which has a long line of BJP dynasts in the fray. Ultimately it is voters who decide and dynasts have lost elections too. Rahul Gandhi himself lost Amethi to Smirti Irani in 2019.

It will be good to see Priyanka Gandhi in the Lok Sabha. She is a natural politician and has come into her own in recent years. Her charisma has often reminded many of her grandmother Indira Gandhi. But her political track record has been mixed. However that has more to do with the weaknesses in the Congress than with her. As general secretary of the Congress in charge of UP, Priyanka did not have much to write home about.

Victory for Congress

In the last UP assembly poll in 2022, the Congress fared even worse than in 2017, winning just 2 seats and its worst ever vote share of 2.3 per cent. In 2017, the party won 7 seats and had a vote share of 6.25 per cent. Later however Priyanka lead from the front in the Karnataka and Himachal campaigns which propelled the Congress to victory.

In Himachal for example, Priyanka played a huge role in stepping in and resolving differences within different factions of the party. She was also a key player in the promises made in the Congress manifesto especially with regard to women.

A win in Wayanad will be important not just for Priyanka herself but for the Congress cadre. The party was on a high after a better than expected performance in the Lok Sabha elections but the recent defeat in Haryana and the party’s sub par performance in Jammu and Kashmir has deflated them just a bit. Victory in Wayanad will give the cadre a reason to cheer.

It also strengthens the Congress in a crucial southern state, especially at a time when the north-south divide is becoming a sensitive issue over delimitation of seats. With Rahul Gandhi an MP from the politically important state of UP and Priyanka an MP from a crucial southern state, the Congress will get a boost.

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A lot of it has to do with Priyanka’s campaigning style which is more spontaneous and personal. She has a natural way with voters and seems at ease in the role. Over the years she has combatively taken on the Prime Minister during election campaigns. On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi took years to adapt and seemed very much the reluctant politician for a long time before he came into his own.

There has been much speculation about whether Priyanka as an MP will set of a rivalry with her brother. I don’t think that will happen. The siblings have always put up a united front and appear to be close. There will naturally be comparisons but they seem prepared for that and ready to tackle it.

Ultimately though the Congress needs more than charisma to win elections. As Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir showed, nothing substitutes hard work on the ground, and factionalism needs to be nipped quickly and firmly. So while Priyanka may give the cadre a morale boost, the Congress has some tough challenges to overcome to beat the BJP.

Nidhi Razdan

@Nidhi

Nidhi Razdan is an award-winning journalist. She has extensively reported on politics and diplomacy.