Priyanka Gandhi's victory margin crossed the victory margin of 3.64 lakhs secured by her brother Rahul Gandhi in the last general election.
Credit: PTI Photo
Thiruvananthapuram: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi made a thumping victory with a margin of 4,10,931 votes in her electoral debut at Wayanad in Kerala, surpassing the margin of 3,64,422 secured by her brother and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the general elections earlier this year.
Priyanka's vote share crossed even that of Rahul Gandhi's in his maiden contest at Wayanad in 2019.
While Priyanka secured 6,22,338 votes, LDF candidate Sathyan Mokeri of CPI came second with 2,11,407 votes and BJP's Navya Haridas came third with 1,09,939 votes.
Priyanka told reporters that she considered the victory as a testament to the fact that her brother worked hard for Wayanad. "I am thankful to the people of Wayanad for giving me an opportunity to serve them and the love they gave during the campaign. I feel privileged and honoured," she told reporters. She also said that she would be coming down to Wayanad soon.
The 52-year-old was a huge crowd puller during her extensive campaign in Wayanad constituency which also comprises parts of Malappuram and Kozhikode districts. There was considerable women participation at her campaign meetings and she was widely hailed as 'junior Indira' (former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi) and even as future Prime Minister.
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Priyanka's vote share of 64.99 percent is slightly above the 64.94 percent vote share of Rahul in 2019. The vote share also increased considerably this time compared to 59.69 percent secured by Rahul in the 2024 general election.
But the victory margin was comparatively lower as the voter turnout fell down this time. Though Priyanka's victory margin crossed the victory margin of 3.64 lakhs secured by Rahul in 2024, it remained lower than the 4.3 lakh margin secured in 2019.
Though the Congress camps were targeting a margin of five lakh votes, the lower voter turnout played the spoil sport.
LDF's vote share came down by around four percent and BJP's vote share fell by around 1.5 percent. CPI's Annie Raja secured 2.83 lakh votes in the 2024 general election which now came down to 2.11 lakh. BJP state president K Surendran had secured 1.41 lakh in 2024 general election, which now came down to 1.09 lakh.