The Hindu : Front Page : Resounding victory for LDF in bypoll

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Wednesday, Nov 23, 2005

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Resounding victory for LDF in bypoll

Special Correspondent

Pannian Ravindran wins by 74,200 votes; poll debacle a lethal blow to both UDF and BJP

CELEBRATION TIME: Pannian Ravindran with jubilant LDF activists after he was declared elected in the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha byelection on Tuesday. Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CPI(M)-led Opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) has dealt a lethal blow to the credibility of the Congress-led ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala trouncing it by an impressive margin of 74,200 votes in the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha byelection.

The LDF candidate Pannian Ravindran of the CPI came up trumps against his main UDF rival V.S. Sivakumar and blew the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to smithereens in the process securing a record tally of 3,90,324 votes against 3,16,124 votes secured by his main opponent. The BJP candidate C.K. Padmanabhan, former State president of the party, lost his deposit as he could poll only 36,690 votes. The BJP candidate's pathetic performance and Mr. Padmanabhan's outburst against the RSS and BJP leadership over the issue have already touched off a major upheaval in the faction-ridden State unit of the party.

The 54-year-old Mr. Ravindran, a reluctant entrant into the poll fray, could secure 51.40 per cent of the 7.59 lakh votes cast in the November 18 poll braving heavy odds, including a hitherto unseen unity among the Congress rank and file, an alleged clandestine nexus between the RSS and the Congress, attempts at massive community and caste-based mobilisation and a mind-boggling display of money power by the Congress and its allies. He has also had to overcome attempts by the ruling UDF to limit the contest to such simple binaries as that between a local lad and an outsider and between those who stood for development and those who put spokes in the development wheel. Mr. Sivakumar could secure only 41.63 per cent and Mr. Padmanabhan 4.83 per cent of the votes polled.

The LDF candidate forged ahead of Mr. Sivakumar, who had represented Thiruvananthapuram from 1999 to 2004, in six out of the seven Assembly segments forming part of the constituency.

The only Assembly segment that did not stand by Mr. Ravindran was Parassala, where Mr. Sivakumar secured a slender margin of 1,013 votes. Mr. Ravindran, the CPI State assistant secretary, raced ahead of his UDF rival in Thiruvananthapuram West Assembly segment by 10,672 votes, Thiruvananthapuram East by 11,536 votes, Thiruvananthapuram North by 16,352 votes, Nemom by 14,357, Neyyattinkara by 7,746 votes and Kovalam by 14,176 votes. In the 2004 for Lok Sabha election, the UDF had not led in any of the Assembly segments where as Mr. Rajagopal, enjoying fair weather after his stint in the National Democratic Alliance Government, had come on top in Thiruvananthapuram North and East Assembly segments.

The byelection outcome has come as a morale booster not just for the LDF, but also the Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran) led by K. Karunakaran. It was a do-or-die battle for him and his supporters and the LDF's emphatic win, coming on top of the sweep in the local body elections barely two months ago, has emboldened him to stake claim to a fair share of Mr. Ravindran's huge margin of victory.

For the UDF, the election defeat could not have come at a more inopportune time as the next Assembly election is due in under six months.

Both the LDF and the DIC(K) have demanded Chief Minister Oommen Chandy's resignation in the light of the outcome of the Thiruvananthapuram byelection.

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