Kerala - Palakkad   

LDF wins nine seats in Palakkad

G. Prabhakaran

BJP's hopes of opening its account in Assembly dashed with Rajagopal's defeat

TASTE OF VICTORY: A jubilant V.S.Achuthanandan comes out of the CPI(M) Palakkad district committee office on Thursday morning soon after the election trends favoured the Left Democratic Front.

PALAKKAD: The Left Democratic Front (LDF) swept the polls in the district by winning nine of the 11 seats. The front, however, faced reverses when two of its prominent leaders were defeated.

Communist Party of India State assistant secretary K.E. Ismail was defeated in Pattambi by his nearest rival, C.P. Mohammed, of the Congress by a margin of 566 votes.

In Chittur, K. Krishnankutty of the Janata Dal (S) was defeated by K. Achuthan, MLA, of the Congress by a margin of 2,012 votes. The BJP, which hoped to open its account in the Assembly this time by winning the Palakkad seat, had the biggest disappointment when its candidate, O. Rajagopal, was pushed to the third position.

The Palakkad seat was won by K.K. Divakaran of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) by a margin of 1,344 votes, defeating his nearest rival, A.V. Gopinath, of the Congress.

Third place for Rajagopal

Mr. Rajagopal could win only 27,667 votes. In the first few rounds of counting, Mr. Rajagopal was ahead when the votes of the Palakkad municipal area were counted. But when the votes of the panchayats of Pirayiri and Mankara were counted, the United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate led. But when the votes of the Kodumbu panchayat area were counted, the LDF surged ahead and won the seat.

Record margin

In Alathur, the CPI(M) candidate, M. Chandran, who was the district secretary of the party earlier, won with the biggest margin in Assembly elections in the State: 47,671 votes. Such a huge margin was a surprise even for the LDF election managers.

Mr. Chandran was dropped from the party State secretariat after the Malappuram State conference.

His nearest rival in Alathur, A. Raghavan of the Democratic Indira Congress-Karunakaran (DIC-K), received only 25,560 votes and the BJP candidate, G. Salprakash, received 6,885 votes.

Such a humiliating defeat for the DIC(K) candidate is said to be because of the disappointment of the local Congress leaders in allotting the seat to the former.

The LDF candidate and Leader of Opposition, V.S. Achuthanandan, retained the Malampuzha seat with the highest ever margin any candidate could get in this constituency so far when he trounced his nearest rival, Satheeshan Pacheni, of the Congress with a margin of 20,017 votes.

Surprise win

In Mannarkad, the Communist Party of India candidate, Jose Baby, had a surprise win when he surged ahead of his main rival, Kalathil Abdullah, of the Indian Union Muslim League when the votes of the three panchayats in the tribal belt of Attappady was counted. In the panchayats of Pudur, Sholayur and Agali, the LDF candidate established a lead of 3,953 votes over his main rival. Till then, the UDF candidate was leading with a couple of thousand votes.

Jose Baby won the seat with a good margin of 7,213 votes. Here, the BJP candidate, M.K. Chandran, received 4,552 votes.

In Ottappalam, the victory of the CPI(M) candidate, M. Hamsa, was more shining because the party won by a huge margin of 24,343 votes, after the sitting MLA, V.C. Kabeer, who was winning the seat for more than two decades as the LDF candidate, crossed over and joined the Congress to become the UDF candidate this time.

Here, the CPI(M) candidate polled 63,447 of the 113897 votes as against 39,104 votes of the Congress candidate. Here the BJP candidate, K. Sivadasan, received 9,759 votes.

In Sreekrishnapuram, the CPI(M) retained the seat by a margin of 4,348 votes as against the just 21 in the last Assembly elections.

Here, the CPI(M) candidate, K.S. Saleeka, defeated K.P. Anilkumar, president of the Youth Congress State unit. The CPI(M) candidate received 67,872 votes as against the 63,524 of the Congress candidate. The BJP candidate, M.P. Narayanankutty, received 6,531 votes.

In Kuzhalmannam seat, the CPI(M) State secretariat member A.K. Balan defeated his nearest rival, C. Prakash of the Congress, with a margin of 13,870 votes. He has improved his last-time margin of 4,031 considerably this time.

In Thrithala, the CPI(M) retained the seat with a better margin. Its candidate, T.P. Kunhunni, defeated P. Balan of the Congress with a margin of 6,949 votes as against the last-time margin of 599 votes. The BJP candidate, Vilathur Krishnankutty, received 8,108 votes. The Kollengode constituency witnessed a close fight between two MLAs.

The CPI(M)'s V. Chenthamarakshan defeated K.A. Chandran of the Congress.

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LDF wins nine seats in Palakkad
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