The Hindu : Front Page : Comfortable win for Congress in Kerala

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Wednesday, Nov 11, 2009
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Comfortable win for Congress in Kerala

Girish Menon

Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) has won the Alappuzha, Kannur and Ernakulam Assembly byelections in a comfortable manner.

The spotlight was on Kannur, where Congress candidate A.P. Abdullakutty defeated his nearest Communist Party of India (Marxist) rival M.V. Jayarajan by an emphatic margin of 12,046 votes. In Ernakulam, Dominic Presentation of the Congress defeated his nearest CPI(M) rival P.N. Seenulal by a margin of 8,620 votes. A.A. Sukhoor of the Congress kept the party flag flying in Alappuzha by defeating his nearest Communist Party of India (CPI) rival G. Krishnaprasad by 4,745 votes.

The seats fell vacant following the resignation of Congress leaders K. Sudhakaran, K.V. Thomas and K.C. Venugopal after their election to the Lok Sabha.

Mr. Abdullakutty’s victory margin surprised even the Congress leadership who banked on a 5,000-vote margin. They had expected the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the newly formed Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) to slice off some of the Congress votes. The BJP’s K. Ranjit polled only 5,665 votes, which was marginally higher than what it had secured in the 2006 Assembly elections. The SDPI’s Abdul Majeed Faizi did not make any dent on the voting preferences. He polled just 3,411 votes.

Row over electoral roll

In Ernakulam and Alappuzha, BJP candidates Shobha Surendran and K. Babu got only 7,208 and 2,247 votes. The People’s Democratic Party candidate in Alappuzha also did not make any difference to the voting preferences. The controversy over the electoral roll for Kannur seemed to have helped the Congress to rally its workers during campaigning. The election results also upheld the conventional view that a higher voting percentage meant a UDF victory.

The election results once again reiterated the bipolar coalition system prevalent in Kerala for quite long. In Kannur and Ernakulam, the fight was between the Congress and the CPI(M) and in Alappuzha the CPI was the Congress opponent.

Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy said that the credit for the electoral victory went to the Congress and the UDF workers who fought the elections unitedly.

Left Democratic Front leaders asserted that the coalition had broadened its support base when compared to the Lok Sabha results in the corresponding Assembly segments.

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