Kerala Bypolls: Ruling Left Front Wins 2 Seats, 3 for UDF

The ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M)-led Left Democratic front (LDF) registered impressive win at Vattiyoorkavu and Konni—two strongholds of the Congress in the state. The opposition, United Democratic Front (UDF) headed by Congress, retained the Ernakulam and Manjeswaram seats and wrested the Aroor seat from LDF in the bypolls to the five Assembly seats in Kerala. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which rules at the Centre, was nowhere in the picture.

Thiruvananthapuram Mayor Prasanth, who contested from Vattiyoorkavu constituency, won with a margin of 14,465 votes against his nearest rival, Congress party's K Mohankumar. While Prasanth grabbed 54,830 votes, which is 44.25% of the total votes, the Congress candidate could bag only 40,365 votes (32.58%). BJP, which had finished at the second position during the 2016 Assembly elections, managed to secure only 27,453 votes (22.16%) this time.

In Konni segment, advocate K U Jenish Kumar of CPI(M) won by a margin of 9,953 votes against K Mohanraj of Congress. Konni Assembly seat was one among the seats, which has been sonsidered as a Congress-UDF stronghold. The Left front wrested the seat from UDF after 23 years.

BJP, which had been campaigning in the name of Sabarimala, could not gain much. Jenish Kumar secured 38.96% of the total votes polled and the UDF candidate Mohanraj bagged 31.79% votes. K Surendran of BJP—who was at the forefront of violent protests after the Supreme Court verdict upholding the rights of women of all ages to enter Sabarimala temple—obtained 28.65% votes.

The UDF candidate T J Vinod won the Ernakulam seat by a margin of 3,750 votes defeating Manu Roy, an independent candidate backed by LDF. Unlike in the last elections, the constituency has seen a tough fight between both the fronts. Ernakulam is considered as a strong seat of the UDF and UDF’s victory margins have always been high. During 2016, UDF had marked victory with a majority of 21,949 votes. This time, Manu Roy bagged 34,141 votes and Vinod secured 37,891 votes.

Aroor, the only one constituency which was with the LDF [in the bypolls], was wrested by the UDF camp through Shanimol Osman. Manu C Pulikal of CPI(M) gathered 67,277 votes which is 43.54% of the total votes, while Shanimol secured 44.88% of total with 69,356 votes. Here, the BJP candidate Prakash Babu collected 16,289 votes (10.54%).

In Manjeshwaram, M C Kamaruddin of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), which is a part of the UDF camp, has retained their seat. He won the seat with a margin of 7,923 votes against Raveesh Thanthri Kuntar of BJP. Unlike rest of the four constituencies, here the fight was between IUML and BJP. Of the total, 40.19% vote share went to the UDF camp and 35.32% votes to the BJP. M Shankara Rai of CPI(M) could bag only 23.49% votes.

Soon after the election results were out, the Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinnarayi Vijayan’s office said: “The results indicate a resounding support for the policies of the Government,” adding that the CM has thanked the people of the state for their support.

Earlier, in Pala by-election also, the ruling Left front had registered its victory. The by-elections now have sent two more LDF members to the legislative Assembly and now the ruling front has 93 MLAs in total out of 140 members.