- Monday, March 03, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
While the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi as a member of the Indian parliament has triggered a major row, mainly in and around Delhi, the centre of Indian politics, the constituency that the Indian National Congress leader represented in the Lok Sabha or Lower House of the parliament since 2019 has worn an unhappy look.
Gandhi represented Wayanad, which is located nearly 2,500 kilometres from Delhi in the southern state of Kerala, India’s only communist-ruled state. The district found itself without a representative in the parliament overnight as Gandhi was expelled on March 24, a day after a court in the western state of Gujarat convicted him in a defamation case and sentenced a two-year prison sentence. He though has been given a month’s time to appeal the verdict in a higher court.
According to a report by The Independent, Gandhi’s office in Kalpetta area of Wayanad has remained shut since the ban came into effect after he was found guilty in a case which was registered against him for allegedly taunting that all thieves share the common surname of Modi.
While Gandhi’s target was prime minister Narendra Modi and fugitive Indian businessmen such as Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi, many with the same surname, a common one in Gujarat, found it offensive. A lawmaker of the Gujarat assembly, who also has the surname of Modi, moved the court against Gandhi over the remark he allegedly made during an election rally in the southern state of Karnataka during the 2019 general elections.
Gandhi’s party has staged protests ever since the ban came and called the verdict against him “erroneous and unsustainable”. It also pledged to challenge his disqualification “both legally and politically”.
In Wayanad, too, people are not impressed with the developments involving Gandhi. While life goes on as usual in the southern district, the local people developed a liking for Gandhi who made regular visits to the constituency from his home town of Delhi despite the distance.
Sindu Prasad, who works in a state-run creche in Wayanad, told The Independent that Gandhi is no less than a father figure to her and her family.
“He is like my father, we worship the person he is. He is valued a lot here in Wayanad and of course what has happened to him is making me more angry than disappointed,” she told the news outlet about the 52-year-old politician.
Gandhi’s leadership in Wayanad, a constituency where he had a thumping victory over his nearest rival from the Communist Party of India in 2019 after losing Amethi in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, won over the women, especially those for whom he set aside funds from his salary as a parliamentarian. The fact that people found him easily accessible also made him a popular MP.
Expressing disappointment over Gandhi’s conviction and disqualification, a colleague of Prasad said it was a “clear violation” of the Congress leader’s freedom of speech and expression and hoped that he would file an appeal to shield his basic constitutional freedom and fight and return to the constituency he represented.
She also called the move politically vindictive, the report added.
The Independent even spoke to Rajamma Vavathil, a septuagenarian nurse who now lives in Wayanad and claimed that she was working in the same maternity ward in Delhi where Gandhi was born in 1970.
“He is my son, and he is a blessed man,” she told The Independent, adding, “I am very angry and I felt the dejection personally.”
Gandhi’s local political foe, the communists, had a mixed take on the matter. While they admit that the Congress leader was ousted in a “fascist manner”, they also felt that it was not too big a loss for Wayanad alleging that he has not done enough for the district, which still lacks proper infrastructure and has a high level of man-animal conflict owing to his location in forest areas of India’s Western Ghats.
