“Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will win Wayanad bypolls with record majority”: Congress leader KC Venugopal

New Delhi [India], October 15 (ANI): Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal on Tuesday stated that Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would win the Wayanad bypolls with a record majority.

Earlier today, the Election Commission announced bypolls for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala and the Nanded seat in Maharashtra. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi is likely to make her electoral debut from Wayanad.

“Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will win the Wayanad bypolls with a record majority… We will win all the Assembly bye-elections,” Venugopal said.

The Wayanad seat was vacated by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after he was also elected to the Lok Sabha from Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh in the general elections held earlier this year.

Venugopal also expressed confidence in winning the Maharashtra and Jharkhand Assembly elections, stating that the party is prepared to fight and win.

“We are confident of winning both the Assembly elections and the by-elections being held across the country… The Jharkhand Assembly’s term runs until the last week of December, yet they announced it first. The Maharashtra Assembly’s term ends on November 26, but they announced the Maharashtra elections last. I believe there is a lack of transparency, but we are ready to fight and win,” he added.

Responding to CEC Rajiv Kumar’s remarks on EVMs, KC Venugopal said that a technical team had already been sent to Haryana to investigate booth-wise occurrences on the counting day.

“We have already sent a technical team to Haryana to examine booth-wise occurrences on the counting day… We will receive a report within a few days… When we complained to the Election Commission of India, they assured us that they would look into it and respond. However, during the press conference, we saw how the Election Commission is reacting… Without conducting an enquiry, they (ECI) are giving a clean chit on everything. This is very unfortunate,” he said.

Earlier, CEC Rajiv Kumar spoke on the process of voting through EVMs, stating that the system is completely safe and robust.

“It is absolutely safe and robust. Look at the last 15-20 elections. It consistently delivers results. It can’t be that it’s only wrong when the results aren’t to your liking,” Rajiv Kumar said.

Jharkhand is set to vote in two phases for its assembly elections on November 13 and 20, while Maharashtra will hold a single-phase election on November 20. The votes in both states will be counted on November 23.

The CEC further explained that in Maharashtra, the date for issuing the Gazette notification is October 22, the last date for filing nominations is October 29, nominations will be scrutinised on October 30, and the last date for withdrawing candidacies is November 4.

The key contenders in the Maharashtra elections include the ruling Mahayuti Alliance, consisting of the BJP, Shiv Sena, and NCP, and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition, which comprises the Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (Sharad Pawar faction), and Congress.