Representation and Reality: Priyanka Gandhi In Wayanad

When a landslide struck Wayanad’s Chooralmala and Madikkai panchayats, killing more than 500 people in 2024, Sabitha was among those who initially believed they had escaped the worst. Living a few kilometres away from the epicentre, her family survived. But her tragedy was only beginning.

Sabitha had taken a bank loan to start a small handicrafts unit — her family’s primary source of income. The landslide and subsequent floods destroyed the unit and its machinery, wiping out her livelihood overnight. The loan, however, remained.

She is not alone. Around 300 women in the region have lost their means of income in the disaster. With existing loans unpaid, banks are unwilling to extend fresh credit, leaving them trapped in a cycle of debt and uncertainty.

In response, these women formed a collective called ‘Women for Loan Relief’ and approached the High Court, seeking directions to banks for loan waivers. So far, their efforts have yielded little.

“Many of us who are indirectly affected by the disaster are women,” says Sabitha. “We thought that our MP, being a woman, would step in, engage with the banks, and push for loan waivers. But nothing happened.”

When the issue was raised with Priyanka Gandhi, the response, Sabitha says, was a standard one — that the matter falls under the State government’s jurisdiction.

“For people like us, having a woman representative has not made any material difference,” she adds.

Priyanka Gandhi currently represents Wayanad, a hill district in Kerala that shares its borders with Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The constituency gained national prominence when the Congress fielded Rahul Gandhi here in 2019. Following his decision to retain Rae Bareli after 2024 election,  the party nominated Priyanka Gandhi from Wayanad. By choosing to contest from Wayanad, Priyanka Gandhi marked the beginning of her electoral politics, keeping the hill district into a high-profile constituency with national attention.

Since 2019, when the first family of Congress chose Wayanad as a political battleground, the district has gained national prominence. Yet, beyond this high-profile status, the ground realities remain stark.

Wayanad, which has the highest tribal population in Kerala, continues to grapple with persistent developmental challenges. Despite the state’s strong overall social indicators, large sections of the district remain disadvantaged, particularly in terms of land ownership, access to quality education, and healthcare infrastructure.

“I have encountered many problems during my education.  We were not provided with the promised financial assistance from the government. I managed to complete my course, but due to the financial crisis, many have to discontinue,” says Reshma from Sultan Bathery, adding that they could not even raise this issue with their Member of Parliament, because she was not accessible. Access to education remains one of the most pressing challenges facing tribal communities in Wayanad. “When government grants were delayed or difficult to access, many students struggled to continue their education,” says Manikuttan, a tribal activist.

Efforts to seek intervention of the MP, he says, have largely been unsuccessful. “We tried to reach out to the MP, but in vain. Students even organised a mail campaign, writing directly to Priyanka Gandhi, but that too did not yield any response,” he adds.

Manikuttan frames the issue less as an individual failure and more as a possible gap in political communication. “She may not be able to address every issue,” he says, “but it is unclear whether she is being adequately briefed by local leaders of the Congress about the ground realities in the district.”

Complaints about the inaccessibility of the high-profile MP, Priyanka Gandhi, are a recurring refrain among marginalised communities in Wayanad.

“Women’s representation is significant, particularly because it carries the expectation of greater empathy and responsiveness in governance,” says Dr. K. Ammini, a rights activist. “However, that expectation has not translated into outcomes here. Despite having one of the tallest women leaders as our representative, our concerns remain largely unaddressed. Education and health issues in the tribal belt are alarming. Tribals can’t have the luxury of private hospitals.https://www.outlookindia.com/topic/yechury

These issues continue to affect the majority of tribals, despite having a prominent woman leader as our MP” she adds.

She is careful not to personalise the criticism. “This may not be entirely an individual failing,” she notes. “There appears to be a structural disconnect  a wall that separates the representative from constituents on the ground. Local leadership within the Congress may also be mediating access in ways that limit direct engagement.”

After being elected with a margin exceeding four lakh votes, Priyanka Gandhi has visited Wayanad on multiple occasions, often holding interactions with different sections of the population. While several people Outlook spoke to pointed to her inaccessibility, her visits have included efforts to directly engage with constituents across social groups.

During one such visit, she met representatives from diverse communities. O.K. Johny, a writer and Left-leaning public intellectual, recalls that she showed a keen interest in the structural issues confronting the region, particularly those affecting tribal communities. “I raised concerns about access to education,” he says. “She followed it up by speaking to tribal graduates. When the idea of a tribal university was proposed, she appeared receptive.” The demand later found a place in the manifesto Congress presented before the assembly election

Johny also points out that, as a woman leader, she displayed a non-sectarian political approach. Recounting a personal interaction, he says that when Priyanka Gandhi noticed a photograph on his wall featuring him with Sitaram Yechury, she acknowledged Yechury as a respected figure and a friend of her brother, Rahul Gandhi— a gesture Johny interprets as indicative of political openness. “She comes across as responsive and sincere,” he adds.

Apart from the tribal university, a full-fledged health facility in Wayanad are high on Priyanka Gandhi’s agenda for the future, according to Congress leaders. Increasing human-wildlife conflict is another persistent issue that continues to disrupt everyday life in Wayanad. “She does visit victims of wild animal attacks,” says Ammini, “but little of substance has followed in terms of long-term solutions.”

At the same time, she acknowledges the limits of parliamentary intervention. “This is not an issue that can be addressed by an MP alone,” she adds, pointing to the need for coordinated action from State agencies and the local administration. Between 2020 and 2024, at least 26 people were killed in wild animal attacks in Wayanad. Bordering major forest reserves, the district remains one of Kerala’s most vulnerable regions, frequently reporting fatal encounters involving elephants and tigers. Since 2014, such incidents have claimed 149 lives, underscoring the persistent and systemic nature of human-wildlife conflict in the region.

These accounts suggest a more layered picture: while perceptions of inaccessibility persist among sections of the marginalised, there are also instances of direct engagement and policy responsiveness. The gap, therefore, may lie less in the absence of outreach and more in how consistently such engagements translate into sustained institutional access and tangible outcomes.