The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has little to cheer about in the district considering the unimpressive performance of its candidates in the Assembly elections.
This was despite the higher voter turnout in many constituencies, and the delimitation factor.
The party candidates could garner more than 10,000 votes in only three constituencies — Beypore, Kunnamangalam and Elathur — of the total 13.
Party national executive committee member and former State unit president C.K. Padmanabhan secured 17,123 votes in the Kunnamangalam segment.
The constituency had witnessed a triangular contest in which the Left Democratic Front-backed Independent P.T.A. Rahim won by a margin of 3,269 votes. The vote share of Mr. Padmanabhan was the highest got by any BJP candidate in any constituency in the previous five Assembly elections.
The votes of the party declined in the Beypore constituency where it had some presence. Its candidate, K.P. Sreesan, could muster only 11,040 votes.
In Elathur, party nominee V.V. Rajan secured 11,901 votes, indicating that the party could not maintain its vote bank in the erstwhile Elathur grama panchayat and the Thalakkulathur grama panchayat. BJP district president P. Reghunath failed to get past the 10,000 mark in the Kozhikode North constituency although the total number of votes polled increased by more than 16,000 than the last election.
In Kozhikode South, party district secretary Jaya Sadanandan got 7,512 votes fewer than its candidate had received in the previous election.
In the 1996 election, the party had got 10,782 votes from the constituency.
The BJP candidate in Vadakara, M.P. Rajan, came fourth, behind Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) candidate N. Venu who secured 10,098 votes. Mr. Rajan got 6,909 votes.
Party State committee member T.P. Jayachandran who contested from Koyilandy failed to improve the party's performance in the constituency compared to previous elections.
The BJP candidates in Nadapuram, Kuttiyadi and Balussery Assembly segments were also unsuccessful in making an impact on the electorate.
The vote share of the party came down drastically in the Thiruvambadi segment. Its candidate, K.J. Jose, an office-bearer of the Minority Morcha, could manage a few more than 3,800 votes.
The party candidate in Koduvally preformed poorly compared to the previous elections. However in Perambra, the party gained some ground.
