The United Democratic Front (UDF) retained the Thrikkakara Assembly constituency with P.T. Thomas, incumbent MLA, winning with a margin of 14,329 votes after bagging a total of 59,839 votes.
J. Jacob, the Left Democratic Front-backed Independent bagged 45,510 votes and T.S. Saji of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagged 15,483 votes. Terry Thomas of Twenty20 bagged 13,897 votes and Riyaz Yusuf, an Independent, bagged 298 votes. A total of 1,36,846 votes were polled.
The Thrikkakara constituency has returned Congress party candidates to the Assembly on both the earlier occasions after it came into existence in 2011. The constituency also includes some parts of the Kochi Corporation.
Mr. Thomas said his victory was the result of a collective effort and support from the UDF constituents. He expressed unhappiness over the failure of the UDF, but promised to continue to fight the wrong policies of the government as part of the Opposition in the State Assembly.
Mr. Thomas had won the election to the Assembly in 2016 with a vote share of more than 45%. He bagged more than 61,000 votes against his nearest rival, Sebastian Paul of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)], who got 49,455 votes. The BJP’s N. Saji had bagged 21,247 votes last time.
The constituency went to polls for the first time in 2011 and the major contest was between Benny Behanan of the Congress and M.E. Hassainar of the CPI(M). Mr. Behanan won nearly 56% of the votes (65,854 votes) to beat Mr. Hassainar, who bagged 43,448 votes. The constituency had seen 69.20% voting in 2021.