PRIYANKA'S CHARM OFFENSIVE

Wayanad welcomed Congress candidate Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on October 23 with music and dance, her fans, young and old, stepping to the tune of the drums.

- Jeemon Jacob

Thousands of Congress workers had descended on Kalpetta, the district headquarters of scenic Wayanad, to greet the Gandhi scion and see her in action.

Priyanka, accompanied by husband Robert Vadra, their children Raihan and Mirayan and mother Sonia Gandhi, had reached Sultan Bathery in Wayanad from Mysuru by road the previous night. Hundreds of people were waiting by the roadside to greet her in the night, necessitating a number of stops so that she could interact with the crowd. One of the pitstops also led to an impromptu visit to the home of a local, Karumankulam Thresiya Papachan, after her exarmyman son Binoy mentioned that his mother was a big fan but couldn't come down to the road as she was bedridden. Priyanka spent 20 minutes with the family, but it was enough to make page one flyers in the dailies the next day.

Meanwhile, on the day of the nomination, the roadshow began at noon from Kalpetta bus terminal. This time, Priyanka had for company her brother Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and the who's who of the state Congress. Later, during an emotional speech, she touched on how her life as a campaigner started in 1989 for her late father, Rajiv Gandhi.