KERALA BYPOLLS

How do rival candidates in Wayanad take on Priyanka's pan-India appeal

In a Lok Sabha contest where the biggest talking point is the presence of Priyanka Gandhi, the fourth generation member of the oldest and most known political family in democratic India, the best that rivals can do is to keep aside all other issues and somehow try and diminish the aura of the family.

They can call the candidate's brother Rahul Gandhi, the former MP who preferred Raebareli to Wayanad, "betrayer" or "deserter" or "absentee MP" or "plain incompetent", whip up as much resentment they can, and then wait till November 23 to see how much they could reduce the victory margin of his sister.

The rival parties are so fully engrossed in discrediting the Congress first family that the Left candidate has no time to even refer to the BJP or its right-wing politics in his stump speeches. The BJP, on its part, has not resorted to its usual instigatory tactic of introducing a communally-sensitive issue like BJP state president K Surendran did early this year by wanting to rechristen Sulthan Bathery as Ganapathy Vattam. Rahul-bashing is a full-time job for both the rivals of Priyanka.

Now, in the last days of the campaign, the election flying squad has uncovered a new issue that rival candidates have scooped up to malign the Congress candidate. Food kits with the Congress party's stamp and the pictures of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi were found at Tholpetty near Karnataka border. These were stacked up, ready for distribution, in the family mill of Congress's Thirunelly mandalam president Sasikumar.

"These people are trying to win using any means possible," the CPI candidate Satyan Mokeri told voters in the tribal belt of Kottathara on November 8, the day after the kits were seized. "Now money will also start to flow. Their (Congress) government is in power in Karnataka. It is easy for them to reach money here," he said.

Navya Haridas, Wayanad's BJP's candidate, struck both the UDF and the LDF with the Congress-branded food kits. "In 2021, the LDF canvassed votes saying the food kits distributed during COVID was Pinarayi Vijayan's. We know the ruse worked. The Congress has now taken a leaf out of Vijayan's book," Navya told voters in Kalpetta town.

"These kits have the pictures of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra. If they think they can compensate for their under-performance of the last five years by delivering food kits worth Rs 200-300, these people are living in a fool's paradise. The Congress is scared. They are trying to mask their incompetence with food kits," she said.

Kalpetta's Congress MLA T Siddique said that these kits were brought to Wayanad long before as part of landslide relief. "These kits were mobilised in four phases. It was as part of the last phase that they were brought to Tholpetty. Before they could be fully distributed, the elections were declared," Siddique said.

Mokeri did not doubt that the kits were mobilised in the aftermath of the landslide. "But all of it was not distributed to the suffering. Many were kept aside for future use. They knew even then that Priyanka would be the candidate. That's why the food packets have her picture, too," Mokeri said.

While the BJP candidate Navya is nearly as contemptuous of Pinarayi as she is of Priyanka, Mokeri's election speeches are focused exclusively on undermining Rahul Gandhi's track record as MP.

Mokeri lists six major failures. One, Rahul Gandhi did not seriously take up the man-animal conflict in Wayanad. "The issue falls within the ambit of the Wildlife Protection Act. If man-animal conflict has to be decisively dealt with, this Act has to be amended," Mokeri said. "Has he made any move to amend this Act," he said.
Two, Rahul failed to persuade Karnataka's Congress Chief Minister to adopt a favourable stand on the night travel ban along the Kozhikode-Kollegal NH that cuts through Wayanad.
Three, Rahul has not brought the Nilambur–Nanjangud railway line to the attention of the Railway Board. "Nor has he taken this up in the Lok Sabha," Mokeri said. (The line, also called the Wayanad Railway, is a railway project to create a broad gauge rail connection from the town of Nanjangud (Karnataka) to Nilambur through Wayanad).

Four, Rahul abandoned Wayanad at the moment of its worst crisis. "Wayanad did not have an MP when the Chooralmala tragedy happened. By then Rahul had resigned," he said.

Five, Rahul did not raise his voice when the Centre refused financial support for landslide victims. "He was morally bound to take up the issue. He should have raised the matter directly with the Prime Minister. If the PM had still refused, Rahul should have collected all the Kerala MPs and staged a dharna in front of the PM's office. He should have stayed put till the money was paid," Mokeri said. Six, he failed to raise farmers' issues in Parliament.

If Mokeri sounded indignant, Navya was dismissive. "This man who rarely goes up the Parliament steps has just 50% attendance. During the last five years, he made a fool of you by not raising any issues concerning Wayanad in the Lok Sabha," Navya told voters in Ernad, a Muslim League bastion. A woman buying meat at the junction was asked about Navya's remarks. "I don't know if what she said is true. Even if it is, I don't mind. It is hard to look at Priyanka and not vote for her," she said.