Kerala bypoll results: Priyanka Gandhi wins Wayanad LS seat

Thiruvananthapuram: Congress candidate Priyanka Gandhi secured her maiden ticket to the Lok Sabha with a massive victory in Wayanad on Saturday. She won with a lead of 404,619 votes.

Congress-led UDF candidate Rahul Mamkootathil has emerged victorious in the Palakkad Assembly bypoll, securing a lead of over 18,000 votes. Meanwhile, LDF candidate U.R. Pradeep has maintained a strong position and won the Chelakkara Assembly bypolls. 

Polling for the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency and the Chelakkara Assembly constituency took place on November 13, while the Palakkad Assembly constituency went to the polls on Wednesday.

While the Congress holds Wayanad and Palakkad, the CPM has won Chelakkara non-stop since 1996.

However, the BJP has set its eyes firmly on Palakkad, where they finished a close second in the 2021 Assembly polls when Metroman E. Sreedharan gave a fright to Shafi Parambil of the Congress, who eventually won his fourth straight victory, but with a slender margin of less than 4,000 votes.

The by-elections to three seats were necessitated after sitting members vacated it.

The result in Wayanad is a foregone conclusion after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi vacated his seat and the Congress decided to field his sister and AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi.

However, at Chelakkara, the fight is primarily between former CPM legislator U. R. Pradeep who represented this constituency from 2016 to 2021 and Congress leader Ramya Haridas who lost to State Minister for SC/ST K. Radhakrishnan in the contest for the Alathur Lok Sabha seat.

Palakkad witnessed one of the most keenly fought by-elections as it appeared to be a triangular fight. The contest got murkier too when a popular local Congress leader P. Sarin, disappointed over not being considered for the seat, left the party and joined the CPM.

The CPM fielded Sarin against his former party colleague and Youth Congress president Rahul Mamkootathil.

The BJP decided to field election battle-scarred veteran C. Krishnakumar, but the party suffered a jolt when its popular youth leader Sandeep Warrier joined the Congress.