In poll debut, Priyanka Gandhi faces accidental politician, veteran Communist

The spotlight is back on Kerala’s Wayanad, this time because of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Congress leader and former MP Rahul Gandhi’s sister. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday filed her nomination papers for the upcoming Lok Sabha by poll, with the party top brass, including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, in attendance. Though Wayanad is considered a safe seat for the Congress, the candidates that Priyanka will be taking on make the contest interesting.
The Lok Sabha by-poll marks Priyanka Gandhi’s electoral debut. Priyanka stayed away from electoral politics for a long time, campaigning for family members and other Congress members. The 52-year-old’s entry into the electoral fray is seen as a strategic move by the Congress party.
In Wayanad, necessitated after Rahul Gandhi vacated the seat, Priyanka Gandhi will take on Sathyan Mokeri of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and Navya Haridas of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It is essentially a three-cornered contest though there are a few other candidates in the fray.
Here is a detailed look at the three main candidates in the Wayanad Lok Sabha by-election.
The ‘will she, won’t she’ question, that had long lingered since 2019, was finally answered as Congress announced that Priyanka Gandhi would contest from Wayanad.
Rahul Gandhi, who won from both Wayanad and Raebareli in the Lok Sabha polls, decided to retain the Uttar Pradesh constituency — a Gandhi family bastion that was represented by Sonia Gandhi for four terms.
The Congress general secretary had previously cited reservations about all three Gandhis being in Parliament. By putting Priyanka in Wayanad, experts believe the move shields the Congress from criticism that the Gandhi family ignored the South despite the party reaping rich electoral dividends from the region.
With Wayanad being a Congress stronghold that her brother Rahul Gandhi won twice, Priyanka Gandhi is expected to sail through
Addressing the crowd after her nomination, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday said that she had campaigned for the party for 35 years, but this was the first time that she had been seeking support for herself.
“When I was 17 years old, I campaigned for the first time for my father in 1989. It’s now 35 years, I have campaigned for my mother, my brother and many of my colleagues in different elections,” she said on Wednesday.
Before her official entry into politics in 2019, she had campaigned extensively for Congress candidates, including her father, mother and brother. She was also known to visit their constituencies, Rae Bareli and Amethi.
Priyanka Gandhi will be fighting against Navya Haridas of the BJP and Sathyan Mokeri of the CPI.
Navya Haridas, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) candidate, brings a mix of professional and political experience to the contest. She has been called an “accidental politician”.
A software engineer by profession, Haridas had earlier worked in Singapore and the Netherlands before entering politics. After she came back to India, she was a two-time councillor in the Kozhikode Corporation and currently serves as the Mahila Morcha State General Secretary for the BJP.
Navya revealed to The Indian Express how she became an accidental politician in 2015, when she was in Kozhikode for a vacation with her children.
“It was election time, and the BJP approached me with a ticket, considering my family’s Sangh Parivar background. I was fielded from the general seat in the corporation. Overnight, I became the candidate. My plan was to return to Singapore if I had lost,” Navya Haridas told The Indian Express.
She never returned and went on to win two elections, one after another.
Haridas has previous electoral experience, having contested the Kozhikode South Assembly constituency in the 2021 Assembly election, where she finished third but significantly boosted the BJP’s vote share.
Navya, with a background in people’s representation and local governance, slammed her opponent Priyanka Gandhi and the Gandhi family, saying the Congress did not do enough during the Wayanad landslides that killed over 400 people in the hill district.
“Wayanad is just a second seat for the Gandhis,” Navya said.
Sathyan Mokeri, the candidate from the Communist Party of India (CPI), is the third big name in the Wayanad contest. Mokeri, a veteran politician with a long career in Kerala politics.
Often referred to as the “roaring lion” of the Kerala Legislative Assembly, Mokeri has been a strong voice for the Left Front. He is a veteran Communist leader.
Born to freedom fighters P Kelappan Nair and Kalyani Mokeri, he entered public life as the secretary of the All India Students Federation (AISF) unit.
Mokeri has served as an MLA from the Nadapuram constituency from 1987 to 2001 and has held various positions, including National Secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha and member of the CPI’s National Control Commission.
He is known for his advocacy on agricultural issues and his involvement in several commissions, including the Agricultural Debt Relief Commission.
Mokeri is confident in his ability to challenge Priyanka Gandhi, drawing parallels with historical electoral upsets, including Indira Gandhi’s defeat.
In addition to the three prominent faces, Duggirala Nageswara Rao of the Jatiya Jana Sena Party, Shaik Jaleel of the Navarang Congress Party, and Independent candidate K Padmarajan have also filed their nomination papers and joined the fray.
The by-election in Wayanad became necessary after Rahul Gandhi, who won the seat in the recent Lok Sabha elections, decided to vacate it to retain his constituency in Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh. The election is scheduled to take place on November 13, with the counting of votes set for November 23.
The outcome of the Wayanad by-election will not only determine the next MP for Wayanad but also be crucial in the run-up to the 2026 Kerala Assembly polls.