Food Kits with Pictures of Congress Leaders Spark Political Controversy in Wayanad

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Nov 7: A political controversy has erupted in the by-election bound Lok Sabha constituency of Wayanad in Kerala after the detection by the flying squad of the Election Commission and the local police some 30 food kits with pictures of Congress leaders including the party candidate for the by-poll Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, on Thursday.

Official sources said the kits, containing tea dust, sugar, rice, and other grocery items, and carrying pictures of Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, and Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister K. Shivakumar, were seized from a flour mill located near the residence of a local Congress leader at Tholpetty in Wayanad district of Kerala.

The ruling Left in Kerala has alleged that the kits were brought for distribution to voters in an attempt to influence them in favour of the Congress in the November 13 bypoll. But the Congress said these were the same kits prepared earlier for distribution to the survivors of the Wayanad landslides on July 30 and had nothing to do with the byelections.

The official sources also admitted that the kits were labelled for distribution to landslide victims but added that necessary proceedings were under way. The Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi is the UDF candidate for the Wayanad bypolls on November 13, where she will be contesting against the CPI candidate Sathyan Mokeri and the BJP candidate Navya Haridas.

Ms Vadra, however, has created positive wave for the political maturity and the friendly gesture she had shown to her political opponents in the midst of the intense electoral battle. She surprised even the LDF campaign managers when she stopped her vehicle to greet her electoral opponent Sathyan Mokeri at Erumamunda in Chungathara panchayat, near Nilambur, on Thursday.

Ms Vadra’s vehicle convoy was heading towards Pothukal after her corner meeting at Akampadam when she saw Mr Mokeri addressing an LDF election meeting at Erumamunda. She got out of the vehicle, walked up to Mr Mokeri, and shook hands with him.

With their hands engaged and smiles exchanged, Ms Vadra asked briefly about his health and electioneering and said “all the best” before proceeding to her next corner meeting at Pothukal. Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal, who accompanied Ms Vadra, too greeted Mr Mokeri.

Ms Vadra’s gesture ignited a wave of camaraderie among the crowd at the election meeting, particularly after her two party colleagues at the Palakkad state Assembly by-lection invited criticism for refusing to shake hands with their LDF rival when they came face-to-face each other at a recent wedding reception.

The UDF candidate Rahul Mamkootathil and his mentor Shafi Parambil, MP, had refused to shake hands with the LDF rival P Sarin when they met at a wedding reception, sending out a message of intense political rivalry. The Congress duo’s behaviour was widely perceived as impolite and rude, especially after Mr Sarin held out his hand and called out to them saying, “give me a hand please.”

In Maharashtra state Assembly elections, a ‘red book’ triggered a fierce debate on Thursday between the Congress and the BJP and their respective allies. The Congress’ Jairam Ramesh this afternoon hit out at a “desperate” Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, and one of the BJP’s top state figures, over his claims that Rahul Gandhi was seeking votes from ‘urban Naxals and anarchists’ by carrying a ‘red book’ to an election event in Nagpur.

In politics, the colour red is often associated with Marxist or communist ideologies. In a post on X this afternoon, Mr Ramesh said, “This book, which Mr Fadnavis is taking objection to, is the Constitution of India, of which Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar was the main architect.” “This is the very same Constitution of India which the RSS (the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP’s ideological mentor) had attacked in 1949… for not having been inspired by the Manusmriti.”

Accompanying that post were images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah receiving copies of the Constitution of India, bound in red with a broad black hinge. Mr Ramesh’s lengthy post also pointed out use of the term ‘urban naxal’ is contrary to statements made by the Union Home Ministry – i.e., “the Government of India does not use the term.”

To back his statement, Mr Ramesh shared the ministry’s answer to an unstarred question in the Rajya Sabha in March 2020, which quoted then junior Union Home Minister as saying the phrase was not used by the Ministry. “Mr Fadnavis should think first and then speak,” Mr Ramesh declared.

Earlier this week Mr Fadnavis had told reporters, “My allegations about Rahul Gandhi… proved to be true about his inclination towards urban naxals. He showed the ‘red book’ and tried to seek help (politically) from urban naxals… What message could Rahul Gandhi have wanted to give…?”

And it wasn’t just the Deputy Chief Minister hitting out; Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju and the BJP’s Maharashtra spokesperson, Keshava Upadhye spewed fire at the Congress. Mr Rijiju slammed his rivals for “fake drama”, claiming the book Rahul Gandhi waved at the Samvidhan Samman Sammelan in Nagpur, and later distributed to people, was actually a blank notebook with a binding designed to make it look like the copy of the Constitution in question.

The BJP’s Maharashtra unit jumped in and shared a video of what it said were notebooks – bound in red – distributed at Rahul Gandhi’s event. In the video the book was opened to show blank pages. The Congress’ Vijay Wadettiwar later said a notebook and pen had been given to all attendees.

The squabble over the Constitution echoes one of the Congress’ big weapons for the April-June election – voters must unite behind the party-led INDIA bloc to stop the BJP from amending and/or changing the Constitution and vote for the opposition grouping to “save democracy”.

The BJP’s attacks over the ‘red book’ issue this week contain a sharp jab on that topic, with the party’s Maharashtra leader, Mr Upadhye, declaring, “Support to Congress means killing Constitution.”

The incident that prompted this round of spats – Mr Gandhi’s speech at the Nagpur convention – was the Congress leader waving a copy of the Constitution and saying, “… the thoughts behind it are 1,000 years old…” and blaming the BJP and RSS for eroding values of the Constitution.

In May, before the Lok Sabha election, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma shared a photo of Mr Gandhi waving a red-covered book and declared, “Original copy of the Constitution of India has a blue cover… Chinese constitution has red cover. Is Rahul carrying a Chinese Constitution?” The claim was fact-checked and it emerged Mr Gandhi, in fact, did have a copy of the Indian Constitution.