Wayanad: Electoral debutant and All India Congress (AICC) General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi won the Wayanad Lok Sabha by-poll with a majority of 4,10,931 votes, breaking the constituency’s record of 3.64 lakh votes set by her brother Rahul Gandhi.
Priyanka won the Wayanad constituency with a total of 6,22,338 votes against 2,11,407 votes secured by the Left Democratic Front candidate, CPI’s Sathyan Mokeri.
Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, had won back-to-back electoral contests from this Kerala hill constituency in 2019 and 2024. However, he vacated it after winning from the family’s Uttar Pradesh bastion Rae Bareilly this year, following which the party fielded Priyanka. And she triumphed with an impressive margin of over 4.10 lakh votes, demonstrating Wayanad’s preference for the Gandhi family.
Congress retains Palakkad Assembly Seat
In a major boost to the opposition Congress-led UDF, the grand old party retained the Palakkad Assembly seat with its candidate Rahul Mamkootathil winning by a significant margin of 18,840 votes, pushing the ruling Left bloc to the third spot.
Mamkootathil secured 58,389 votes as against BJP’s C Krishnakumar who garnered 39,549 votes, according to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
LDF candidate Dr P Sarin, the former Digital Media Convener of KPCC who switched to the Left after the national party announced the candidacy of Youth Congress state president Mamkootathil, finished third with 37,293 votes.
Krishnakumar initially led the race. However, Mamkootathil gained a narrow lead of 1,425 votes in the seventh round of counting and then on, steadily increased his margin in the subsequent rounds.
The present by-election was necessitated by the resignation of Congress’ Shafi Parambil, who vacated the seat after being elected to the Lok Sabha from Vadakara in the general election this year.
CPIM candidate wins Chelakkara Bypoll
Ruling LDF candidate U R Pradeep won the Chelakkara Assembly by-poll in Kerala on Saturday by defeating Congress-UDF’s Ramya Haridas by a margin of 12,201 votes.
Pradeep, who had maintained a steady lead since the beginning of the counting, garnered 64,827 votes, while Haridas had to settle for 52,626 votes, according to Election Commission figures.
The BJP-NDA nominee, K Balakrishnan, finished in third position with 33,609 votes, the figures showed.
Though six candidates were in the fray in Chelakkara, the main contest was between Pradeep and Haridas.
A by-poll was necessitated in the Chelakkara segment, a Left stronghold for years, as the then MLA and former devaswom minister K Radhakrishnan was elected to the Lok Sabha earlier this year.
The by-poll was held on November 13 and the results were announced on Saturday
(With PTI inputs)
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