The bypoll results in Wayanad show AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has not only deepened the Congress, and by extension, UDF’s footprint in the Lok Sabha constituency spread across three districts, but has, in the process, cut into INDI ally LDF’s votes.
The sharp differences between the CPI(M) and CPI local leaders and cadre and a lightning campaign by the 52-year-old MP-elect has helped the UDF widen its gap with its closest rival. Throughout her less than three-week campaign, Vadra consciously projected herself as the UDF nominee and less as a Congress leader. UDF’s constituent, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), has a huge clout across the seven assembly segments in Wayanad LS seat.
This combined with Vadra’s appeal helped the Congress turn in its best performance with a 65% vote share, higher than Rahul Gandhi’s 2019 record.
Between the LS polls in April-May and the bypoll now, the CPI’s vote count has dropped by about 72,000 votes. But the Left sympathisers point to an overall drop in voter turnout, leading to a fall in the vote count of the three political parties. The CPI’s diminishing clout comes in sharp contrast to the party giving its best performance in 2014, garnering a 38.9% of votes, and making the UDF’s win a tough one.
CPI(M) central committee member Thomas Isaac, however, says the results don’t suggest any anti-incumbency against the state government as the UDF & LDF have retained their sitting seats. (Kerala had bypolls to one LS and two assembly seats). In a post on X, he said the bypoll results, in fact, showed the BJP was on the backfoot.
UDF’s performance across the seven assembly seats is sure to bolster its confidence to step up its campaign against Pinarayi Vijayan’s eight-year reign and unseat the LDF in the assembly polls due in two years. The Congress won Karnataka followed by Telangana, last year, and a win in Kerala will only add a feather to its cap.
In the LS polls in April-May, the UDF won 18 out of 20 seats in Kerala in a big dose of hope for the Opposition combine.
