Wayanad Lok Sabha election 2024 results: The Wayanad constituency that elected Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi, by a landslide margin of 4.3 lakh votes in the previous Lok Sabha elections is tied up in a three-way fight this year with BJP state president K Surendran and Communist Party of India (CPI’s) Annie Raja.
WAYANAD LOK SABHA ELECTION RESULTS 2024 LATEST UPDATE:
- WAYANAD SEAT DECLARED: Rahul Gandhi wins with a vote margin of 3.64 lakh
- Rahul Gandhi expands vote margin to 3.34 lakh
- Rahul Gandhi leads with over 2.48 lakh votes, is likely to retain Wayanad seat
- Gandhi ahead with over 1.65 lakh votes over his rivals
- Rahul Gandhi gallops ahead with a lead of over 1.2 lakh votes
- Gandhi takes lead of 30,000 votes.
- Congress’ Rahul Gandhi takes a comfortable lead in early trends.
The Lok Sabha constituency, often called the hill district of Kerala, spans across Wayanad, Kozhikode and Malappuram districts. The constituency has a diverse demographic composition with a predominantly rural electorate. It also boasts an equally balanced religious demographic of 40 per cent Hindus, 40 per cent Muslims and 20 per cent Christian population.
Meanwhile, the exit polls estimated Wayanad to favour Rahul Gandhi.
WAYANAD LOK SABHA ELECTIONS: CONGRESS STRONGHOLD
Since its formation after the redrawing of constituencies in 2008, Wayanad has been a Congress stronghold. In the 2019 General Elections, Rahul Gandhi, the current MP from Wayanad, won the elections by securing 706,367 votes. LDF candidate PP Suneer won a far-second 274,597 votes and BDJ (S) leader Tushar Vellapally got 78,816 votes.
Gandhi had secured 64.7 per cent of the vote share, and won with the highest margin in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Kerala.
Pitted against Gandhi are Annie Raja and K Surendran. Annie Raja, wife of CPI general secretary D Raja, and general secretary of the party’ National Federation of Indian Women is contesting the election for the first time. Surendran has fought elections twice before Pathanamthitta in 2019 and from Kasargod before that.
WAYANAD: GANDHI FACTOR
Wayanad’s Lok Sabha elections 2024 must also be seen in the context of Rahul Gandhi’s nomination from Raebareli constituency, which has been bestowed upon him by Congress stalwart and his mother, Sonia Gandhi. If Gandhi wins both the seats, he must give up one of them.
But if political pundits are to be believed, Wayanad should be won by Gandhi, but it could possibly send a “wrong message”. Political pundit Prashant Kishor said, “If you do not win in UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, there is no benefit if you win from Wayanad,” insisting that not fighting it out in Amethi would send the wrong message. Gandhi who had lost to BJP’s Smriti Irani from Amethi in 2019 gave up the seat this year to Kishori Lal Sharma.
But Wayanad might not be a cakewalk either, with both Left and BJP eyeing the Congress bastion. Rahul Gandhi’s novelty factor is also expected to wean away this season. But if the electorate’s loyalty to Congress is something to go by, Gandhi might be looking at a win yet again.
