Kerala - Alappuzha   

By-poll to local bodies: UDF retains seats

— Photo: by Special Arrangement

NEW COUNCILLOR: A.A. Shukoor, MLA, and Congress party activists congratulating Amjith Kumar, who won the Vada Canal municipal ward

ALAPPUZHA: The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) has retained both the municipal council and grama panchayat seats to which by-polls were held here on Thursday.

In the Vada Canal ward of Alappuzha municipality, earlier represented by present legislator A.A. Shukoor, Congress candidate R. Amjith Kumar won with a majority of 462. He bagged 963 out of the 1,522 votes polled. His nearest rival Rahiyanath, an independent backed by the Left Democratic Front (LDF), got 501 votes.

In the by-poll to the St. Francis School ward of Aroor grama panchayat, Congress candidate Shihab Ismail bagged 527 votes to defeat his nearest rival, Abdul Salam of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), to register a comfortable victory margin of 170 votes.

Shihab Ismail was contesting to the seat that fell vacant after his father and sitting panchayat member, Ismail, died in a road accident.

Mr. Shukoor, who was among the first to reach the counting centre to congratulate Mr. Kumar, told reporters that the public decision to help the Congress retain the seat was a reaction to the “misrule” of the LDF, which held a majority in the Alappuzha Municipal Council.

This was the “first dose of shock treatment” that the LDF would get in the forthcoming municipal elections, he said.

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