The United Democratic Front (UDF) can feel moderately happy at the 12 seats it has notched up in the Lok Sabha elections considering the obstacles it had to face in the months prior to the election. It has been a case of pluses for the ruling coalition since coalition partners, with the exception of the Socialist Janata (Democratic), did extremely well in terms of the margin of victory.
In contrast, it has been minuses for the Congress party, which lost four sitting seats, but the overall 12 seat victory has helped the State leadership to conceal the impact of the loss in at least two constituencies that were considered safe.
At best, the State leadership can smugly claim that it has been able to send a large contingent of MPs to help the Congress cross the 50-seat mark in the Lok Sabha.
The Congress leaders’ preliminary assessment has identified Central polices as the prime reason for the party’s debacle in Idukki, which witnessed a torrid agitation over the proposal to implement the Kasturirangan committee report covering 123 ecologically sensitive areas in the State a few months earlier to polling date.
LDF decision The LDF’s bold decision to back Joice George, who was at the helm of the agitation sponsored by the High Range Protection Committee proved to be a success as it tapped the dissatisfaction among the electorate in the Assembly segments that felt the impact of the agitation.
The party’s defeat in Thrissur and Chalakudy was mainly because of the mess it created by inter-changing K.P. Dhanapalan and P.C. Chacko merely to accommodate the latter in Chalakudy, considered a safe seat.
Mr. Chacko was also not able to pick up the expected number of votes from Perumbavoor and Kunnathunad. In Kannur, the Kasturirangan report could have been a game spoiler.
Low turnout blamed Even though Congress Candidate K. Sudhakaran got leads in high range constituencies of Irikkur and Peravoor, the low voter turnout did not help him cover the shortfall in Assembly segments where the CPI (M) has a rather strong presence.
N.K. Premachandran’s victory in Kollam, where he defeated CPI(M) Polit Bureau member M A Baby, vindicated his party’s decision to quit the LDF, but the credit for the margin he notched up goes to the firm standing in the constituency he once represented. Jose K. Mani’s huge margins should be contrasted with the result in Idukki, which at one point of time, came under the Kerala Congress (M)’s radar.
