Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra received a glowing endorsement from her party's Rajya Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor following the announcement that she will contest the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala after her brother, Rahul Gandhi, vacated it.
Tharoor took to social media platform X, saying, "No more doubt, no more questions, here comes Priyanka."
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, 52, will make her electoral debut from Wayanad, a seat her brother won in two consecutive terms. She had previously been considered as a potential candidate for Amethi, Rae Bareli, and Varanasi parliamentary seats.
Priyanka Gandhi's entry into electoral politics has been highly anticipated, with her name previously floated as a possible challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi and as a successor to Sonia Gandhi in Rae Bareli. However, the party has chosen to field her from Wayanad, a seat that has been a Congress bastion since its creation in 2008.
"I'm not nervous at all... I am very happy to be able to represent Wayanad. All I'll say is that I won't let them feel his (Rahul's) absence. I will work hard and try my best to make everybody happy and be a good representative," Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said after her candidature was announced.
Priyanka is married to businessman Robert Vadra, who had expressed interest in contesting from Amethi in the lead-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. After the announcement of her candidacy for Wayanad, Vadra shared a photo of Priyanka with folded hands and a heart emoji on social media.
If Priyanka Gandhi Vadra wins the by-election, it would mark the first time that all three members of the Gandhi family—Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra—would be serving concurrently in Parliament.
Published By:
Devika Bhattacharya
Published On:
Jun 18, 2024
English (US) ·