Wayanad bypoll: Thumping victory for Priyanka Gandhi in her electoral debut

The 52-year-old was a huge crowd puller during her extensive campaign in the constituency which also comprises parts of Malappuram and Kozhikode districts.

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.

Despite a nine percent fall in the voter turnout compared to the last general election, Priyanka's vote share went up to 65 per cent from 60 percent.

Priyanka's victory margin  crossed the victory margin of 3.64 lakhs secured by her brother and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the last general election. 

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Though Congress camps were targeting a victory margin of five lakh surpassing Rahul's record margin of 4.3 lakh votes in 2019, fall in voter turnout played the spoil sport.

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 future Prime Minister.

LDF candidate Sathyan Mokeri of CPI came second with 2.09 lakh votes which is lower than the 2.83 lakh votes secured by CPI's Annie Raja in the last general election. LDF's vote share also came down by around four percent.

BJP's Navya Haridas finished third with around 1.09 lakh votes, which is lower than 1.41 lakh votes secured by BJP state president K Surendran in the last general election.

BJP's vote share also fell down to 11.5 per cent from 13 per cent.