WAYANAD: Five suicides, countless cries for help, and a party in disarray, yet Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Congress MP from Wayanad and AICC general secretary, has maintained her silence. While families of dead party workers await answers, the social media is brimming with Priyanka’s glossy reels of courtesy calls, choreographed meetings, and smiling photo-ops. The disconnect is now drawing fire from both inside and outside her party.
Priyanka has been on a ten-day tour of Wayanad since September 12. In the past six days, she has met cultural icons like Cheruvayal Raman, M N Karassery, and Kalpetta Narayanan, alongside several religious leaders. She also visited tribal settlements and survivors of the Chooralmala-Mundakkai landslide. But she has carefully sidestepped her own district Congress leadership, a move that has exposed the deep cracks within the local unit.
Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi are expected to join her on Friday. Party circles say it will be a private visit.
Sensing blood, the CPM has swooped in. “On August 31, when Wayanad was mourning the anniversary of the Chooralmala tragedy, it was Priyanka’s moral duty to stand with the people. But she stayed away. The Congress says it’s not the responsibility of an MP to attend such memorials. Then what is her responsibility, just filming reels?,” said CPM senior leader C K Saseendran.
“Priyanka was in Wayanad the very day Mullankolli panchayat member Jose Nalledam killed himself over Congress factionalism.
Days later, she attended an event barely 5km from his home but never showed up at their doorstep. The same pattern repeated when N M Vijayan’s daughter-in-law Padmaja attempted suicide over a cooperative bank loan dispute,” he added.
CPM state secretariat member M V Jayarajan himself has taken the lead in targeting Priyanka for her “inaction”.
But the knives are also out within the Congress. Senior leaders in Wayanad admit the crisis is spinning out of control. “Supposedly, Priyanka has asked the DCC for a report on suicides and factionalism. But the actual issue is lack of leadership. Mullankolli was a local issue that could have been resolved by the DCC president.
Instead, it ended in the suicide of a party worker. Priyanka has the power to change the leadership here. We hope N D Appachan is removed in the upcoming reshuffle,” a local leader said. For now, as Priyanka continues her PR-heavy itinerary, the political storm is catching up.