Dealing a heavy blow to the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) on Tuesday swept 18 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala, even as Thrissur fell to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in a remarkable upset victory for actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi.
The lone LDF win came through Minister for SC/ST Welfare K. Radhakrishnan of the CPI(M) who wrested Alathur from Congress’s sitting MP Remya Haridas.
Senior Congress leader and sitting MP Rahul Gandhi retained the Wayanad seat by a hefty margin of 3.64 lakh votes over his nearest rival, CPI’s Annie Raja. Mr. Gandhi won 6,47,445 votes.
In Thiruvananthapuram, sitting MP Shashi Tharoor of the Congress ensured a straight fourth term for himself by scraping past BJP candidate and Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar by a margin of 16,077 votes.
At one point, Mr. Chandrasekhar’s lead had soared to over 23,000 votes before it began a nosedive in the final rounds of counting. Mr. Tharoor won 3,58,155 votes. In Kozhikode, M.K. Raghavan (Congress) also ensured a fourth straight term.
Mr. Suresh Gopi enjoyed a smooth sailing in Thrissur, defeating his nearest rival the CPI’s V. S. Sunilkumar by a margin of 74,686 votes. Mr. Gopi won 4,12,338 votes to open the BJP’s Lok Sabha account in Kerala. Congress leader K. Muraleedharan was pushed to third position here.
Other than Mr. Sunilkumar and Ms Raja, the big names in the LDF camp who bit the dust on Tuesday included CPI(M) leaders K.K. Shailaja, T.M. Thomas Isaac, Elamaram Kareem, A. Vijayaraghavan and M.V. Jayarajan, and CPI’s Pannian Raveendran.
CPI(M) MLA V. Joy, despite keeping alive LDF hopes for one more seat, eventually bowed to the Congress’s Adoor Prakash in a photo-finish race in Attingal.
Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan, BJP state president K. Surendran, Shobha Surendran, M.T. Ramesh and Anil Antony were among the BJP names who tasted defeat on Tuesday. Thushar Vellappally of NDA-ally Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) finished third in Kottayam.
In the final tally, it was UDF 18, LDF 1, BJP 1.
Building up the UDF score, the Congress retained Kasaragod (Rajmohan Unnithan), Kannur (KPCC president K. Sudhakaran), Vadakara (Shafi Parambil), Wayanad (Rahul Gandhi), Kozhikode (M. K. Raghavan), Palakkad (V.K. Sreekandan), Chalakkudy (Benny Behanan), Ernakulam (Hibi Eden), Idukki (Dean Kuriakose), Mavelikkara (Kodikkunnil Suresh), Pathanamthitta (Anto Antony), Attingal (Adoor Prakash) and Thiruvananthapuram (Shashi Tharoor). The Congress also wrested Alappuzha (K. C. Venugopal) from the CPI(M). The IUML retained Malappuram (E. T. Mohammed Basheer) and Ponnani (Abdusamad Samadani). N.K. Premachandran of RSP won Kollam for a third consecutive term, while Kerala Congress’s K. Francis George won in Kottayam.
Alathur, which fell to CPI(M)‘s K. Radhakrishnan, and Thrissur, where the BJP triumphed, were earlier held by the Congress.
Exit polls by multiple agencies over the weekend had forecast glad tidings for the Congress-led UDF.
The counting of votes began at 8 a.m. across 20 centres in Kerala on Tuesday, starting with the postal ballots. The electronic voting machines (EVMS) were brought to the counting tables at 8.30 a.m.
As the day progressed, key constituencies including Thiruvananthapuram and Attingal went on to give cliff-hanger moments with the leads swinging between the top candidates. In Attingal, where Mr. Prakash’s initial victory margin over V. Joy of the CPI(M) was just 685 votes, prompting the CPI(M) to insist on a recount of the postal ballots. The results are awaited.
Huge victory margins
Half of the Lok Sabha seats in Kerala saw emphatic UDF victories on Tuesday with margins above one lakh. Congress’s Rahul Gandhi topped the list with a victory margin of 3,64,422, followed by E. T. Mohammed Basheer of the IUML (3,00,118). Other high margins were Hibi Eden (Ernakulam - 2,50,385), Abdusamad Samadani (Ponnani - 2,35,760), N. K. Premachandran (Kollam - 1,50,302), M. K. Raghavan (Kozhikode - 1,46,176), Dean Kuriakose (Idukki - 1,33,727), and Shafi Parambil (Vadakara - 1,14,506), K. Sudhakaran (Kannur - 1,08,982) and Rajmohan Unnithan (Kasaragod - 1,00,649).
