Finally after two decades of ‘will she, won’t she’ Priyanka Gandhi is going to make her election debut now. She will contest the Lok Sabha bypoll from Kerala’s Wayanad, the constituency that her brother Rahul Gandhi has vacated so as to retain Rae Bareli seat in Uttar Pradesh instead.
The development shows – if there was only doubt on that score—that Rahul would be principal leader of the Congress (and Prime Ministerial face whenever the time comes). And that Priyanka would play supportive role. It was imperative for Rahul to identify with the Hindi heartland, especially UP where, but for Rai Bareli, the Congress had got wiped out in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. It is UP which has produced eight Prime Ministers so far, and has been the Karmabhoomi of the Nehru-Gandhi family.
Priyanka has all along played a secondary role—though she is perceived by some quarters as a more politically savvy of the two siblings. In 2004, it was “a family decision” that it would be Rahul (and not Priyanka) who would come into active politics and contest elections—with mother, Sonia Gandhi making way for him in Amethi by shifting to the neighbouring Rae Bareli seat. At that time, the possibility of the three of them standing for elections was considered—but it was Priyanka who had apparently ruled it out. For 20 years, she nurtured both Amethi and Rae Bareli seats on behalf of her brother and mother.
At one stage, during the recent Lok Sabha elections, there was a buzz that Priyanka would contest from Rae Bareli and Rahul would fight from Amethi again ( where he had lost in 2019) in addition to Wayanad. But it was Rahul who chose the relatively safer Rae Bareli as his second seat as the second seat with the “family understanding” being possibly that Priyanka would fight whichever seat he would later give it.
A quarter century ago, Sonia Gandhi defeated charismatic Sushma Swaraj ( her daughter Bansuri Swaraj recently won from New Delhi seat on BJP ticket). in a seat in Karnataka. Priyanka accompanied her mother and campaigned. Many women in Karnataka (and in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu) then looked at Priyanka with nostalgia because she reminded them of her grandmother Indira amma’, the late PM Indira Gandhi. But today, most of Indian people—with over half of them under 30—have barely any memory of Indira except what they have read in books.
Over the years, Priyanka had become known for her one-liners. In 1999, when Arun Nehru, her father Rajiv Gandhi’s cousin and one-time confident was contesting from Rae Bareli on the BJP ticket, she just asked the people there: “are you going to vote for a man who betrayed my father”? Arun Nehru lost the elections. He had fallen out with her father and joined hands with V P Singh who replaced Rajiv as PM in 1989. She gave occasional interviews to keep the suspense about her political role.
That phase of uncertainty is gone now. In 2024, Priyanka Gandhi is not only one of the general secretaries of the Congress Party, she is the star campaigner of the Party. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, she was in great demand as a speaker in election rallies. Her speeches were focused and at one time during the nomination process, her name was seriously considered for Varanasi seat to contest against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Requests were there from the allies also including the Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee.
Priyanka did not agree making the point that she would like to be available for national campaign for the Congress Party. This proved correct as she drew huge crowds in the campaign rallies and especially became a big draw with the women voters. Priyanka also showed her capacity as a good negotiator on behalf of the Congress. This was manifest in the crucial discussions with Samajwadi Party about seat sharing in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha elections. Priyanka’s equation with Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav at personal level clicked. The big win of INDIA bloc in Uttar Pradesh helped in bringing down the seats of the BJP in Lok Sabha polls.
It is clear that Priyanka will have an easy victory in Wayanad and she will enter the Lok Sabha soon. Then both Rahul and Priyanka will be members of Lok Sabha while their mother Sonia Gandhi is in Rajya Sabha. Rahul has been nominated as the Leader of the Opposition which virtually means the position of the shadow Prime Minister on behalf of the Congress and the opposition. Rahul will have the opportunity to confront the Prime Minister in Lok Sabha at equal level. Priyanka’s performance in Lok Sabha session will be keenly watched. Will she outsmart her brother Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha? Coming days will make that clear. (IPA Service)
