Kerala - Kochi   

Delimitation blamed for low victory margin

Photo: H. Vibhu

K. V. Thomas at the press meet. —

KOCHI: K.V. Thomas, who won the Ernakulam Lok Sabha seat, sees no communal polarisation or inner-party bickering for his unexpectedly thin victory margin.

Instead, at a news conference here on Sunday, he blamed it on the delimitation of the former Ernakulam constituency following which chunks of pro-UDF areas had been stitched on to the newly-formed Chalakkudy. For instance, some 10,000 votes in the former Aluva Assembly segment had gone from Ernakulam and might have landed up in the Chalakkudy UDF candidate’s ballot box.

Again, he reasoned, Ernakulam was not known for big-margin wins except for perhaps his own 1984 victory with about a lakh votes’ majority in the aftermath of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination.

Even in the past, he said, only Assembly segments such as Ernakulam, Kalamassery and Thrikkakara gave substantial winning margins to the UDF while the rest were ‘minus’ areas. He denied that there was a ‘vote leak.’

No communal factor had worked against him. While Hindus voted him the most, Muslims in Mattancherry-Kochi had overwhelmingly favoured him and Christians had not particularly sided with him just because he was a Christian.

“The electorate in Ernakulam Lok Sabha constituency does not vote on religious lines,” he asserted. The allegations of ‘Israel spy’ and ‘Taslima’s friend’ had gone unstuck too.

As for the bickering in the Congress against him, he said it was simply not true. (There have been reports that a section of the party, aggrieved that Mr. Thomas had been made the candidate in place of Hibi Eden, had kept away from the campaign; Mr. Thomas was widely seen as the party high command’s `import.’) Anyhow, he said, he was an ‘honest and loyal’ Congress worker and hence he had never let his grievances go public.

Mr. Thomas, who is going to the Lok Sabha for the fourth time, said his top priority would be to get a modern urban waste management project for Kochi.

The second and third would be the metro rail project and the timely completion of the Vallarpadom container project. An industrial water scheme and promotion of tourism and fisheries would be other priorities. He would also try to get the Coastal Zone Management plan reworked so that coastal people in Kochi would get some relief.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Lack of organ donors hits transplantation surgeries
Training programme
Seminar
Fake notes seized
Little fans root for their heroes
Transport authority could ease traffic snarls
Navy veterans’ meet
Plea to parents
Delimitation blamed for low victory margin
More Plus One seats for science stream students
Call to pick Railway Minister from State
Kochi today

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu