Kerala - Kochi   

Both fronts hope to win Ernakulam seat

KOCHI: Both the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) exuded confidence of winning the seat as soon as polling in the byelection to the Ernakulam Assembly constituency came to an end on Saturday at 5 p.m.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was equally optimistic of an improved performance as against the last Assembly election held in 2006.

K.P. Dhanapalan, MP, who is also the district convener of the UDF, expressed satisfaction about the high voter turnout stating that efforts put in by the front specifically in this direction paid dividend. “Our dedicated campaign aimed at bringing out the residents of flats, who are usually apathetic to the elections, to the polling booths proved successful,” he said.

This was a claim he shared with Gopi Kottamurikkal, the district secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). “Owing to our effective intervention, we could create enough enthusiasm among this most urbane section of the electorate,” he said. He attributed this to the sustained campaign conducted by the LDF ministers and MLAs centred on 600-odd flats in the constituency.

BJP State secretary A.N. Radhakrishnan said his party would improve upon its vote tally of 4,900-odd votes secured by its candidate Nedumbassery Ravi in the last Assembly elections, thanks to the dedicated work of the entire party machinery at the grassroots level. He, however, said it was difficult to speculate which of the two fronts would suffer a drop in the vote share owing to the BJP’s better performance.

Mr. Dhanapalan said that except for the boycott of election by a section of the electorate in Mulavukad panchayat and Makkaparambu, the support base of the UDF in the constituency was more or less intact. “We are confident of maintaining the majority of over 10,000 votes that Thomas Master was able to secure in the constituency during the last Lok Sabha elections, he said. The LDF was not able to make much impact despite “misusing the official machinery and adding bogus voters” though not on the scale as witnessed in Kannur, Mr. Dhanapalan said. Besides, he cited the enviable record of the front in previous elections in the constituency to drive home the point.

Mr. Kottamurikkal said the front was able to add 3,000 legitimate voters to the voters’ list without attracting any criticism.

The absence of negative publicity in the media this time around, which he said was the case in the last Lok Sabha elections, also helped its cause. Meanwhile, the statement given by the UDF candidate Dominic Presentation to the electronic media after casting the vote to the effect that the Church had pledged him support caused a minor stir.

The election committee secretary of the LDF, Dinesh Mani, MLA, has lodged a written complaint with the Election Commission against Mr. Presentation.

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