Dealing a blow to the one-year-old ruling CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the city council, the United Democratic Front (UDF) captured the Areekkad ward in the bypoll, the result of which was declared on Saturday.
V.S. Sayyid Muhammed Shameel, an Independent supported by the Congress-Indian Union Muslim League-Janata Dal (United) combine defeated T. Moideen Koya of the CPI(M) by a margin of 416 votes.
The by-election was necessitated following the resignation of former Mayor V.K.C. Mammed Koya, after he won the election from the Beypore Assembly constituency.
Mr. Shamil, who had contested the 2015 civic body poll, had been defeated by Mr. Mammed Koya by a margin of 202 votes. “Now the people of the ward are fed up of the games being played by the ruling front. The victory is also a sort of referendum against the Left government in the State,” Mr. Shamil told mediapersons after the declaration of results.
As many as 4,511 out of the 6,072 voters exercised their franchise in the bypoll held on Friday. Mr. Shamil secured 2, 231 votes while Moideen Koya got 1,815; T. Anil Kumar ( BJP) got 390; Moideen (Independent), 30; Shamil (Independent), 23; Moideen Koya (Independent), 22.
A combination of factors worked in favour of the winning candidate. One of them is the local sentiment against the CPI(M) strategy of fielding Mr. Mammed Koya, a popular leader and industrialist, in the 2015 civic body polls, making him the Mayor and later nominating him for the Beypore Assembly segment. As a former DYFI- SFI activist, Mr. Shamil was not an unfamiliar face in the region.
This time, the CPI(M) put up Mr. Moideen Koya as the candiate. A former standing committee chairman of the Corporation and former president of Cheruvannur grama panchayat, he was also a member of the Feroke area committee of the CPI(M). The outcome of the bypoll will not have any bearing on the city council where the CPI(M) enjoys a brute majority.
Vcitory is a sort of referendum against Left govt. in State
V.S. Sayyid Muhammed Shameel
Winning candidate
