It was where an incumbent was pitted against two women, that too in a constituency where women voters were more than a lakh stronger than men voters.
Still, Attingal turned out to be where the Left Democratic Front, through A. Sampath, its sitting MP, registered its second highest majority that ran into nearly 70,000 votes more than the nearest rivals, Bindu Krishna of the UDF and Girija Kumari of the BJP.
“It proves that women here have voted sensibly, showing their political consciousness and that it is they who know the real impact of the LPG-Aadhar and price rise issues on households,” said Mr. Sampath, adding that women, who rarely got a chance to express themselves in public domain, had done so in the political domain.
Talking to The Hindu at the counting centre at the Mar Ivanios Vidya Nagar here on Friday, Mr. Sampath said he had done his duty with ‘utmost commitment’, raising the voice of the common man in the Parliament and that the results showed that they considered him one among themselves. “They know that I will continue to speak for them, which is why they have reposed that confidence in me,” he said.
One-sidedEarlier, the counting process for Attingal turned out to be a one-sided affair, with Mr. Sampath maintaining a handsome lead right from the beginning. The lead, which touched 1,500 after 30 minutes, rarely dipped after that, crossing 15,000 in the first two hours and then shooting to over 32,000 in the next one hour.
Mr. Sampath, who spent time chatting with journalists in the media room at the counting centre, all the while keeping an eye on the results that kept flashing on a large screen in the room, later said the national victory of the BJP could not be attributed to any ‘Modi wave’, but to the ‘anguish of the people against the anti-people policies of the UPA’. “It can be called something like the Aam Aadmi Party’s Assembly victory in Delhi, not because of any wave, but just because of the people’s anger towards the Congress government there,” he said.
