On a day the UDF faced unexpected turn of events State-wide, the coalition made marginal increase in number of seats in Kottayam district where it increased its tally to eight seats from the existing seven.
An upset victory for the LDF was at Ettumanur where former MP and CPI(M) leader K Suresh Kurup reined in the two decade old dream run of Kerala Congress (M) leader Thomas Chazhikadan with a majority of 1801 votes. Mr. Chazhikadan had retained his lead till the votes from Kumarakom and Thiruvarpu segments came up for counting in the last leg. However, many believe the fate of the KC(M) leader was decided by the voters of Athirampuzha where he failed to get the majority he had expected.
A similar victory awaited the UDF in Kottayam segment where the UDF candidate and sitting MLA from Adoor Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan (Congress-I) scraped through in a fiercely fought battle with his CPI(M) rival and sitting MLA V N Vasavan with a narrow margin of 711
votes. The not so impressive performance of the BJP in this segment (5449 votes) and the strong stance taken by the NSS points to the reason for the LDF upset.
Though stiff competition was expected in Kottayam and Ettumanur, the quick changes in the leads made the early hours of the counting put the UDF camp under pressure even in segments like Changanassery and Pala where the LDF candidates registered early leads.
The biggest win was reserved for the Opposition Leader Oommen Chandy who registered his 10th consecutive victory from Puthuppally with an unprecedented 33,255 votes against Suja Susan George of the CPI(M).
However, the Kerala congress (M) veteran K M Mani who registered his 12 consecutive term from Pala, it was a different story. His NCP rival Mani C Kappan succeeded in bringing down the margin to 5259. This is Mr Kappan’s second round against Mr Mani and in the 2006 elections he had brought down the margin to 7759 votes from the five figure margins
Mr Mani had enjoyed till 2001.
The LDF managed to retain Vaikom when K Ajtih of CPI took the set for the second time with a margin of 10,568 votes. The second biggest majority was however, reserved for former Minister and KC(M) leader Mons Joseph in Kaduthuruthy who took the seat with 23057 votes. He
defeated his nearest rival Stephen George of KC(Ati-merger group) who had deserted KC(M) to join the LDF bandwagon on the eve of the elections.
In Changanassery CF Thomas of KC(M) who has been representing the constituency for the past 31 years, was returned with a majority of 2554 against his CPI(M) rival B Ekbal. UDF took back Kanjirappally from the LDF when N Jayaraj of KC(M) was declared elected with a
majority of 12206 votes against Suresh T Nair of CPI. In Poonjar PC George (KC-M) retained his seat with a comfortable majority of 15704 votes against his rival Mohan Thomas (Left Ind.)
The Bharathiya Janta Party (BJP) who had fielded candidates in all the nine seats have made remarkable increase in polled votes, said district president Ettumanur Radhakrishnan. According to him, the party had polled 3.11 per cent votes during the 2006 assembly elections and this time it has increased by nearly two per cent . The party has improved on its performance during the Parliament elections, he said.
