Priyanka Gandhi Vadra began her parliamentary career in style by registering an impressive win in the by-poll held from Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala, the results of which were announced on Saturday. When reports last came, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was leading by a mammoth majority of 4,10, 931 over her rivals Sathyan Mokeri  Communist Party of India (CPI) and Navya Haridas Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The election of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was a foregone conclusion from the word go, and the only question asked was whether she would overtake the brute majority bagged by her brother Rahul Gandhi in the constituency.

Priyanka Gandhi created a record by polling 6,22, 338 breaking the tally of Rahul Gandhi in the 2024 Lok Sabha poll from the constituency. Rahul Gandhi had won the seat by a majority of 3,64,422 votes and he quit Wayanad seat in favour of the family fiefdom of Rae Bareli from where he had contested. Rahul Mamkoottathil of the Congress retained the Palakkad Assembly constituency by a thumping majority of 18,840 votes, defeating his nearest rival C Krishnakumar of the BJP.

While Mamkoottathil polled 58, 389 votes, the BJP candidate had to contend with 39, 549 votes. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) supported independent P Sarin, who had crossed over to the Left Democratic Front (LDF) from the Congress, was relegated to the third position as he polled 37, 298 votes. What made the victory sweeter for the Congress candidate was the majority with which he won the by-poll.

Shafi Parambil, the sitting MLA from Palakkad had won the 2021 Assembly poll by a majority of 3859 votes and he resigned from the seat on getting elected as Member of Parliament in the 2024 general election.

The ruling CPI-M retained the Chelakkara Assembly constituency from where its nominee UR Pradeep was elected by a majority of 12,201 votes. He defeated his Congress rival Remya Haridas and the BJP candidate K Balakrishnan. Both the by-polls to the Assembly constituencies of Palakkad and Chelakkara saw high voltage campaigns and dramatics. At one stage, it looked like the BJP candidate may make it to the Assembly from Palakkad.

But the Muslim community in the constituency voted en masse for the Congress candidate and this helped the GOP to score a spectacular win. Though the results from the two constituencies do not make an impact on the Kerala Legislative Assembly, the CPI(M) winning the Chelakkara constituency has come as a morale booster for chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the party’s state chief M V Govindan.

The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) had campaigned on the “unholy alliance” between the CPI(M) and the BJP which has been proved a misnomer if the final results are any indication. The support extended by the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), an ‘extremist’ organisation, to the Congress candidate has taken a lot of sheen from the victory of Mamkoottathil.