It might sound curious that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has chosen to try and enter Parliament through Wayanad, a tribal-dominated constituency in the southern state of Kerala. There, however, is a reason to an extent that her brother Rahul Gandhi fought and won the seat twice. He vacated it this time to represent Rae Bareli, a family constituency in Uttar Pradesh that elected him with a margin larger than that of Wayanad. By all reckoning, Wayanad is a safe seat for the “first family”. The district comprises a sizable population of Muslims and Christians, who are generally supporters of the Congress party. So are tribals and segments of migrant agriculturists who came from other districts and settled down there through generations. Communists are a force to reckon with too, but the collective will of the other segments have the potential in them to ensure a Congress-UDF victory. Little wonder, then, that the Nehru family repeatedly zeroes in on Wayanad for their entry to Parliament. Notably, Indira Gandhi too had contested and won polls from the South – the tribal belts in Karnataka and united Andhra Pradesh in the past.
The huge presence of Congress leaders – from chief ministers to party heavyweights like AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge at the nomination presentation event on Wednesday demonstrates the seriousness the family and the Congress party attaches to Priyanka Gandhi’s parliament entry. With Priyanka Gandhi likely passing the litmus test for legitimate leadership, the assertion is also that the Congress party will remain family-centric in future too. As is often noted, the Nehru family is the glue that keeps the rank and file of the party united. In their absence at the helm, the party would disintegrate – also for the reason that the Congress party hardly has other leaders who have a high stature or public acceptance. This is evident in the case of the present party chief Kharge too, who is believed to be dancing to the tunes of Rahul Gandhi and the rest of the family.
The Congress party has managed to come out of its deep sense of distress over the series of defeats it suffered after 2014, when the BJP held a huge sway over the nation. With assembly poll wins in Karnataka, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh etc, the chances of a revival for the party’s fortunes was evident. In Haryana, clever games of the BJP robbed the Congress of a promised victory. In fact, the good tidings for the down-and-out Congress came after Rahul Gandhi set himself on the Bharat Jodo March, starting from Cape Comorin in the South and reaching up to Jammu and Kashmir. He followed this up with a similar journey from the East to the West. All these bode well for the cause of national integration.
