 "Wayanad bypolls: Priyanka Gandhi wins by over 400k votes in electoral debut")
Wayanad bypolls 2024 result latest updates: Congress-led UDF candidate Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is marking her political debut from Kerala’s Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, has won by a margin of 410,931 votes on Saturday, the Election Commission data showed. In June Wayanad Lok Sabha polls, Rahul Gandhi had won by a margin of 364,422 votes.
Gandhi is up against Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate Satyan Mokeri and Navya Haridas of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Lok Sabha bypolls in Wayanad were necessitated after Rahul Gandhi vacated the seat for Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli constituency. Rahul had contested and won both the seats in the Lok Sabha elections held in June. However, he had to vacate one of them as mandated by law, paving the way for Priyanka Gandhi’s official political debut.
Priyanka Gandhi's poll debut significance
With Priyanka's win in Wayanad, the Gandhi family has a solidified presence in the Parliament, where Rahul and Sonia Gandhi are already representatives. Sonia Gandhi, who earlier represented the Rae Bareli seat, now is a Rajya Sabha MP.
Besides Wayanad, Kerala’s Chelakkara Assembly seat is also up for bypolls.
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When were bypolls held in Wayanad
The polling for the Wayanad Lok Sabha bypolls was held on November 13, coinciding with the first phase of Assembly elections in Jharkhand and bypolls to various Assembly seats in multiple states.
The election officials began the counting trend with the postal ballots, which offer a remote voting opportunity to the people who are not able to cast their votes on the official polling day. Following this, the counting of electronic voting machines will be taken up by the officials.
Priyanka has campaigned for the Congress party in several elections for the past many years. However, her potential victory from Wayanad will mark her entry into active politics.
Besides Priyanka, there were a total of 15 candidates for the seats.
(With PTI inputs)