Wayanad, July 2: Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and former Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi, along with his sister, current MP and AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi, is expected to visit Wayanad later this month to lay the foundation stone for 100 houses promised to victims of last year’s devastating landslide.
The houses were part of a rehabilitation promise Rahul Gandhi had made in August 2024, following one of the worst natural disasters in Wayanad’s history. The landslide, which struck in July 2024, wiped out four villages, claimed over 280 lives, and left around 80 people missing.
Nearly 6,000 people were rescued, and more than 8,000 were displaced and moved to relief camps. The Gandhi siblings had visited Wayanad on August 1 last year to assess the damage, interact with survivors, and visit relief camps.
Following a meeting with local authorities and Congress leaders — where the scale of the tragedy and the extent of housing loss were discussed — Rahul Gandhi announced that the Congress party would build 100 homes for the displaced.
The Kerala government has since identified suitable land for the project, and the foundation stone laying ceremony will mark the formal beginning of construction. At the time, Rahul had drawn a deeply emotional parallel, saying the grief of the survivors reminded him of the pain he felt when his father, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was assassinated in 1991.
“I know what I felt when my father died. But this is much worse — people here have lost entire families. It’s not one person feeling this pain, it’s thousands,” he had said. After stepping down as Wayanad MP to retain the family stronghold of Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh, Rahul was succeeded by Priyanka, who secured a landslide victory in the by-election with a margin of over four lakh votes.
IANS
