With less than three weeks to go for the Wayanad Lok Sabha bye-election, Congress candidate Priyanka Gandhi has written a passionate letter to the people of Wayanad wherein she states that it was after returning from visiting landslide-hit villages in the district that she felt it would be an honour for her to represent them in Parliament.
Earlier on Wednesday, at a massive roadshow Priyanka Gandhi submitted three sets of nomination papers for the bypolls to be held on November 13.
In her letter she points out that “it would be an honour to learn from you, to understand your lives and the challenges you face and to become part of this courageous community that knows how to respect each other and stand tall even in the most trying times.”
“A few months ago I visited Chooralmala and Mundakkai with my brother and saw the devastation with my eyes. I saw children who lost their entire family, mothers who lost their children, met people whose entire things had been washed away in the landslide. I was struck by one thing, each and every person was trying to help one another,” said Priyanka Gandhi in the heartfelt letter.
“They supported each other without grief and with commitment and empathy. Your spirit of bravery has deeply touched me. To be part of your community to be part of your family is a great privilege and honour for me,” the Congress leader said.
“You have given my brother your love and I know he reciprocates it fully. When he asked me to be the Congress candidate for Wayanad, he did it with a mixture of pride and sadness in his heart. Pride in your values, in your culture and in your genuinely-deep bond with him and sadness to leave you. I promised him that my work here will serve to deepen this bond and that I will do all I can to fight for you and represent you in the way you wish to be represented in Parliament,” wrote Priyanka Gandhi.
“You will be my guides and teachers in this journey which (I hope) will be my first as a public representative, but not my first as a public fighter. I look forward to carrying this battle for all our futures forward with your support and will be deeply grateful to you if you choose to make me your MP,” added Priyanka Gandhi.
The bye-election became a necessity after her brother Rahul Gandhi vacated the seat which he retained in the April Lok Sabha polls in favour of Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh.
The CPI has fielded veteran former legislator Sathyan Mokeri who finished a close third during the 2014 General Elections in Wayanad, while the BJP has brought in young Kozhikode Corporation Councillor Navya Haridas, a former software engineer who quit her job and plunged into full-time politics.
Rahul Gandhi had won the 2019 General Elections with a margin of 4.60 lakh from Wayanad which came down to 3.64 lakh votes in this year’s elections.
Wayanad constituency is spread across seven Assembly constituencies in three districts – Wayanad, Malappuram, and Kozhikode. Of the seven, four are held by the Congress-led UDF, two by the CPI(M) and one was won by the Left-backed Independent legislator, P.V. Anvar, who has now split up with the ruling Left and floated his own party.