The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Poll figures show a close race

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 15, 2011
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Poll figures show a close race

C. Gouridasan Nair

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The trend in voting in the just-concluded Assembly elections show that the fight between the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) was almost evenly close across the State.

In all the three regions of the State, the two alliances moved neck and neck before they reached the photo finish. However, the UDF was ahead of the LDF in both the northern and central districts in terms of vote share, and the LDF could somewhat make up the difference in their relative vote share only by securing a higher number of votes in the southern districts.

In the six northern districts of Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikode, Malappuram, and Palakkad, the UDF secured 1,66,534 votes more than the LDF. It did the same in the central districts of Thrissur, Ernakulam, Idukki and Kottayam, securing 1,86,957 votes more than the LDF. However, the LDF forged ahead of its rival in the southern districts of Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram securing 1,99,940 votes more than the UDF.

The gap between the two alliances was most marked in Malappuram, where the UDF forged ahead of its rival by 3,79,046 more votes. The UDF was able to secure 1,66,534 votes more than the LDF in the northern districts of Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikode, Malappuram and Palakkad only because of the higher tally in Malappuram. Of the 75,10,875 votes polled in the northern districts, 34,41,525 votes were won by the UDF, 32,74,991 by the LDF, 5,05,406 by the BJP, and 2,87,188 by the others. This is where the 10,27,529 votes secured by the UDF in Malappuram become significant. The LDF was way behind the UDF in the district with a tally of 6,58,483 votes. The BJP came a distant third in the district with 87,546 votes, much less than the 1,29,412 votes polled by the others.

Bridging the gap

The LDF had to depend heavily on the votes it secured in Kannur, Kozhikode and Palakkad to bridge the gap to a certain extent. Although LDF conceded 5 seats to the UDF in Kannur, the alliance secured 1,36,678 votes more than the UDF in the district. The LDF's tally here stood at 7,13,624 against the UDF's 5,76,946 votes. The BJP could secure only 37,657 votes in the district.

Surprisingly, though Kozhikode district gave the LDF its best seat tally anywhere in the State; there was no marked distance between the two alliances in terms of vote share in the district. In spite of winning 10 out of the 13 seats, the LDF could get only 54,131 votes more than the UDF here, the LDF tally being 7,91,875 votes against 7,37,744 votes of the UDF.

In the central districts of Thrissur, Ernakulam, Idukki, and Kottayam, the UDF was ahead by 1,86,957 votes. Taken together, the UDF tally in these districts came to 24,18,205 votes against the LDF's 22,31,248 votes. The BJP's share in these districts came to only 2,66,205 votes. The most noteworthy aspect of the polling figures in these districts is that in three out of four of them, the UDF was ahead of the LDF, the only exception being Thrissur.

In the south, the LDF was able to secure 23,42,984 votes against 21,43,044 votes polled by the UDF, the difference between the two being 1,99,940 votes. Going by this, the difference between the UDF and LDF is 1,53,551 votes in favour of the UDF.

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

Kerala