Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and Sonia Gandhi arriving in Wayanad on September 19, 2025. Photo: Special Arrangement
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, who is visiting Wayanad, is expected to convene a crucial meeting with the All India Congress Committee general secretary (organisation), K.C. Venugopal, and the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president, Sunny Joseph.The discussions will centre on the State’s political landscape and strategic preparations for the impending three-tier local body elections, anticipated next month, as well as the Assembly polls in April, sources said.The meeting assumes particular significance amid the ongoing internal discord and controversies plaguing the local Congress unit in Wayanad. The deaths of local leaders, including former District Congress Committee treasurer M.N. Vijayan and his son, following financial allegations, and recently a grama panchayat member Jose Nelledam besides the near-attempted death of Vijayan’s daughter-in-law Padmaja Vijesh, have overshadowed the constituency tour of AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. The incidents compelled her to seek an explanation from local party functionaries.Mr. Gandhi’s engagement with senior party leaders is widely interpreted as a signal to the rank and file of the party that the Congress high command remains committed to addressing escalating local bickering.Though ostensibly Mr. Gandhi’s is a private visit, his deliberate scheduling of meetings with Mr. Venugopal and Mr. Joseph underscores the severity of challenges confronting the party’s Kerala apparatus.Mr. Gandhi, accompanied by his mother and president of the Congress Parliamentary Party, Sonia Gandhi, arrived at Calicut International Airport in a chartered aircraft at around 10 a.m. on Friday (September 19, 2025). Both departed by helicopter to Wayanad. Both leaders have taken residence at the Taj Wayanad Resort and are expected to remain in the constituency until the conclusion of Ms. Vadra’s outreach programme on September 21. Published - September 19, 2025 11:19 am IST
