West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will campaign for Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is set to make her electoral debut from Wayanad, according to sources within the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Priyanka was selected to contest from the Wayanad seat in Kerala, a constituency her brother Rahul Gandhi chose to vacate in order to retain the Raebareli seat in Uttar Pradesh.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul had won both constituencies. The decision for Priyanka to contest from Wayanad was finalised on Monday during a gathering of the Congress’ top leadership at party chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence in New Delhi.
Rahul secured victory in the Raebareli seat by defeating BJP’s Dinesh Pratap Singh with a margin of 3,90,030 votes. He also retained the Wayanad seat, defeating Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate Annie Raja by a margin of 3,64,422 votes.
This development follows a meeting between Congress senior P Chidambaram and Mamata at the state secretariat Nabanna, West Bengal, on Thursday, which lasted around 40 minutes, as per The Times of India.
The meeting took place ahead of Parliament resuming on June 24 for its first session following the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. This meeting was also was Mamata’s first direct meeting with any senior Congress leader since her party won 29 seats in Bengal in the recently concluded poll.
