Highest victory margin for Joseph

His ninth term from Thodupuzha

Kerala Congress (M) leader P.J. Joseph got the highest victory margin of 45,587 votes in the State in Thodupuzha.

This is his ninth term from the constituency — of the ten elections he contested from both the United Democratic Front (UDF) and Left Democratic Front (LDF) camps.

Mr. Joseph defeated U.K. Chacko in 1970 with a margin of 1,635 votes.

He represented the constituency for four consecutive terms till he was defeated by P.T. Thomas in 2001.

Prior to that, Mr. Joseph defeated Mr. Thomas in 1996. Though the Congress could not win any seat in Idukki district, KC(M)’s Mr. Joseph and Roshy Augustine (Idukki) could keep the UDF flag flying in the district.

While Mr. Augustine is representing the constituency for the fourth consecutive term, E.S. Bjimol (Peerumade) of the Communist Party of India and S. Rajendran (Devikulam) of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) are representing the constituencies for the third consecutive term.

M.M. Mani, the former district secretary of the CPI(M), is being elected for the first time to the Assembly from Udumbanchola.