Congress leader Rahul Gandhi skipped the closely conducted election campaign in Tripura, the first polls since he completed the Bharat Jodo Yatra, where Congress has paired with CPI-M to challenge the ruling BJP. Instead, Gandhi, currently camping and skiing at Gulmarg in J&K, issued an appeal on Facebook to Tripura voters, to vote for his party. Soon thereafter, Gandhi also tweeted that he would be visiting Cambridge later this month to deliver a lecture.

“Looking forward to visiting my alma mater Cambridge University and delivering a lecture at @CambridgeJBS,” Gandhi tweeted.

Given the Congress narrative of Gandhi acquiring a new political persona through his yatra, many in the Congress were hoping to see him ‘unleashing’ it in the Tripura campaign field. His sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra too chose not to campaign in Tripura even though she had campaigned for the party in the Himachal Pradesh elections where Congress was seen the favourite as the results proved. Congress is a junior partner of CPI-M in the Tripura polls, something that should not have been a problem for Gandhi to campaign as he had campaigned in the past in Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand polls where the Congress had played second fiddle to regional parties.

Prime minister Modi, home minister Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda led the BJP campaign in Tripura against the Opposition alliance while the CPM’s central leaders Sitaram Yechury, Prakash Karat and Brida Karat camped in Tripura and campaigned alongside the state party leaders.