The Gandhi siblings have redrawn the map of Wayanad’s electoral politics. The once quiet Lok Sabha seat came into limelight in 2019 when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi chose it as his second constituency after Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.
He won decisively, defeating PP Suneer of the Communist Party of India (CPI) by over 4.31 lakh votes and secured the highest margins in all seven assembly segments – Mananthavady, Sulthan Bathery and Kalpetta in Wayanad district; Eranad, Nilambur and Wandoor in Malappuram; and Thiruvambadi in Kozhikode.
Despite the Rahul wave in 2019, the CPI (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) managed to win three – Mananthavady, Thiruvambadi and Nilambur – out of seven segments in the 2021 assembly elections.
Lower margin of victory
In the remaining Assembly constituencies, where the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) won, Mr. Gandhi’s lead narrowed significantly, by several thousand votes.
In Kalpetta, Mr Gandhi had a lead of 63,754 votes in the Lok Sabha elections, but Congress candidate T Siddique’s winning margin in the Assembly elections fell to 5,470. In Wandoor, Congress candidate AP Anilkumar’s margin narrowed to 15,563, where Mr Gandhi had an advantage of 69,555 votes. IC Balakrishnan’s victory in Sulthan Bathery was only 11,822, against Mr Gandhi’s lead of 70,465 votes.
In Eranad alone, Indian Union Muslim League’s PK Basheer put up a remarkable performance with a lead of 22,546 votes compared to Mr. Gandhi’s lead of 56,527.
Regional focus
The 2021 assembly results were heavily influenced by specific regional issues such as welfare schemes and tribal development, which helped the LDF retain Mananthavady. However, the UDF capitalized on agrarian distress and the “Gandhi influence” to win Kalpetta and retain Sulthan Bathery. The selection of candidates also contributed to the defeat in Kalpetta. Disputes over the buffer zone and the representation of minorities also played a key role in the outcome.
The Nilambur Assembly segment presented a completely different electoral picture, with leftist independent PV Anvar retaining the seat he had won in the 2016 polls. However, Aryadan Shoukath of the Congress won the seat in a by-election last year after Mr Anvar broke with the Left.
In his second innings from Wayanad, Mr. Gandhi won the 2024 Lok Sabha polls by securing more than 3.64 lakh votes. Later, his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra retained the seat in the by-election with a margin of more than four thousand votes. By beating her brother’s margin, the LDF has now set a high bar in the upcoming assembly polls.
Impact of landslide recovery
UDF’s position is not as comfortable as these numbers suggest. The suicides of Congress leaders NM Vijayan and Jose Nelledam, coupled with allegations of corruption in Congress-run cooperatives, exposed fissures the party was trying to suppress. The LDF, meanwhile, moved swiftly on the ground, rolling out a rehabilitation package after the landslides in Wayanad and building a new quarter for the displaced residents.
Still, Ms. Vadra struggled to keep up the pace. She visited Wayanad repeatedly and remained closely involved in landslide recovery efforts and local community meetings until 2026, building the kind of direct contact that numbers alone cannot create.
Conflict between man and wildlife
The upland contest looms as a referendum on years of systematic neglect and unresolved local grievances, particularly the persistent and widespread human-wildlife conflict in the seven assembly constituencies. The increasing frequency of animal invasions into human settlements has left the agrarian community feeling vulnerable and in many cases abandoned by what are considered inadequate state mitigation strategies.
This sense of physical insecurity was further compounded by restrictive night traffic bans on National Highway 766 and the Mananthavady-Bavali interstate route. Although conceived as a conservation measure, these closures within Karnataka’s forest boundaries are effectively choking the economic arteries of Wayanad district, disrupting trade flows and complicating emergency transit. This isolation is further compounded by a critical deficit in medical infrastructure. The absence of a comprehensive tertiary healthcare system forces residents to undertake risky journeys to Kozhikode for life-saving treatment.
Amidst these challenges, a ray of hope emerged when the state government launched the Anakkampoyil-Kalladi-Meppadi twin tunnel project. This ₹ 2,134 crore flagship initiative by the Konkan Railway Corporation aims to build an 8.73 km long underground road. Once completed, it will serve as a vital alternative to the congested Thamarassery Ghat road connecting Kozhikode to Wayanad. For voters, such projects are not just infrastructure upgrades, but a fundamental demand for fairness—ensuring that a neighborhood’s ecological significance is not at the expense of the safety and development of its residents.
Wayanad has become one of India’s most closely watched constituencies. Yet for all the national attention, the issues weighing on voters remain stubbornly local. Across the seven assembly segments, these concerns continue to cast a long shadow that no political star power has yet managed to resolve.
Published – 21 March 2026 19:41 IST
