Well, it is a double delight for the pumped-up Congress with Priyanka Gandhi deciding to make her electoral debut from Wayanad constituency from the State. The decision follows Rahul Gandhi’s decision to relinquish Wayanad and retain Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh. The decision has helped the Congress to ward off the criticism that Rahul has cheated the voters of Wayanad. The criticism would have been justified had a candidate other than Priyanka been fielded from Wayanad. Priyanka’s Wayanad foray has sent the message loud and clear: That the Nehru family has no intention of abandoning the people of Wayanad, who stood by the Gandhi sibling in his hour of difficulty and crisis.

It goes without saying that the decision has come as a morale booster for the Congress and the party-led United Democratic Front (UDF), which is hoping to repeat its impressive performance in the local body polls in 2025 and the Assembly election in 2026, too. The prevalent perception in the Congress and the UDF is that the prospects of the UDF wresting power is bright indeed. In support of this argument, Congress leaders say that the party secured a lead in 110 out of the 140 assembly seats in the State. This has been achieved by what they call the shift in minority community votes, especially Muslims, to the Congress, in the Lok Sabha polls.

But the ground reality is different. The pattern so far has been that the UDF wins the Lok Sabha elections while the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front(LDF) romps home the winner in the battle for the State Assembly. The Congress thinks that the pattern will be broken in the 2026 electoral battle.

The million dollar question, however, is this: Will Priyanka’s presence signal the end of the internecine infighting, which has been the bane of the Congress in Kerala? Will she be able to make the warring Congress factions smoke the peace pipe and fight as a united force to challenge the LDF? The task is not easy at all, given the scale and virulence of the factional feud plaguing the Congress. The present situation in the party does not inspire confidence at all. The magnitude of the problem can be gauged from the fact that Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K. Sudhakaran and the leader of the Opposition V D Satheesan are pulling in different directions.

Satheesan has the backing of KC Venugopal, who is close to Rahul Gandhi and who is supposed to be the last word on Congress politics in Kerala. Sudhakaran, however, is in no mood to oblige his rivals. The combative KPCC president, who has dug in his heels, has the solid support of senior Congress leaders A K Antony and Ramesh Chennithala. It is an open secret that Satheesan wants Sudhakaran out. And he is straining every nerve to ensure Sudhakaran’s ouster from the KPCC chief’s post. How this sordid drama will play out remains to be seen. In other words, ensuring total unity in the party is the principal challenge Priyanka Gandhi faces in her new avatar. Can she succeed where other senior Congress leaders have failed?

As far as the LDF is concerned, the task is cut out for the Front. First and foremost, the LDF will have to find a strong candidate, preferably a leader from Wayanad. Reports say CPI’s Annie Raja, who put up a good fight against Rahul Gandhi, is said to be not too keen on contesting again. Under the circumstances, the best candidate the CPI can put up is Sathyan Mokeri, who scared the daylights out of late Congress leader MI Shanavas by sharply bringing down his majority from over one lakh to 20,000 odd votes in 2014 parliamentary poll from Wayanad. How close the fight was is clear from the fact that Sathyan secured 38.92 per cent of the votes against the 41. 21 per cent obtained by Shanavas.

As for the BJP, it is not clear whether the party will again field BJP state president K. Surendran, who lost his deposit this time. The BJP has always come up a distant third in all the Lok Sabha elections held since the creation of Wayanad constituency. But it is also a fact that the BJP has managed to increase its vote share by more than 62,000 votes in 2024 – a development which must set the Left parties thinking and propel them to initiate prompt corrective action.

Before concluding it must be said that the decision to field Priyanka from Wayanad has helped the Congress to overcome a difficult situation vis-à-vis its ally, the Indian Union Muslim League. It is known to one and all that the IUML was keen on getting the Wayanad seat. If the Congress had decided to field a candidate other than Priyanka, the IUML would have frowned upon that decision. The Congress understood this and acted smart by deciding on the candidature of Priyanka. An outsmarted IUML had no option but to welcome Priyanka. In other words, the draft-Priyanka decision was a political masterstroke. The big question, however, is: will the deft move signal the end of factionalism in Congress and transform the party into a fighting force capable of taking on the awesome organisational might of the Left Democratic Front? (IPA Service)