District Congress Committee (DCC) president M. Liju has resigned from the post in the wake of the heavy defeat of the party in the district in the Assembly polls.
Mr. Liju submitted his resignation letter to Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Mullappally Ramachandran on Monday. “I have tendered my resignation taking moral responsibility for the party’s debacle in the Assembly polls,” Mr. Liju said, adding that various factors had contributed to the Congress’s poor show in the district.
The Congress, which had contested in eight seats in Alappuzha lost seven. While its ally Kerala Congress led by P.J. Joseph tasted defeat in the Kuttanad segment. As the Left Democratic Front (LDF) wave swept the district, the Haripad constituency provided the only solace to the Congress, where Ramesh Chennithala emerged victorious.
It is the second Assembly polls in a row, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) has to settle for a single seat in the district. In the 2016 polls, the UDF had lost all seats except Haripad constituency. The Congress, later, increased its tally to two when it wrested the Aroor segment from the LDF in a bypoll held in 2019. One-and-a-half years after the victory, however, the party failed to retain Aroor as sitting MLA Shanimol Usman lost the electoral battle to Daleema Jojo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Although the UDF’s vote share, compared to 2016 polls, has increased in Aroor, Cherthala, Alappuzha, Ambalappuzha, Kayamkulam, Mavelikkara, and Kuttanad constituencies that was not enough to secure victory for UDF candidates in these seats. In Haripad, Mr. Chennithala got 72,768 votes, a decrease of 3,212 votes from 2016. His victory margin fell to 13,666 from 18,621 votes five years ago.
In Chengannur constituency, once known as a Congress stronghold, its candidate M. Murali, who polled 5,588 fewer votes than P.C. Vishnunath of the Congress in the 2016 election there, finished a distant second. CPI(M) candidate Saji Cherian’s victory margin of 31,984 votes in Chengannur is the highest in the district.
