Over the past two months, Chengannur was witness to a campaign that had no parallel in its electoral history. On Thursday, the Assembly constituency threw up a byelection outcome that too had no parallel in its history.
In an outcome that had all the dimensions of a Left Democratic Front (LDF) wave, the ruling alliance romped home with a record margin of victory.
LDF candidate Saji Cherian of the CPI(M) won the byelection, necessitated by the death of K.K. Ramachandran Nair of the CPI(M), by a margin of 20,956 votes, staying ahead of his rivals D. Vijayakumar of the Congress and P.S. Sreedharan Pillai of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in all the 10 panchayats and the Chengannur municipality forming part of the constituency.
The LDF’s victory margin is the biggest in the history of the Chengannur Assembly constituency, surpassing the previous record of 15,703 votes registered by Mammen Iype (Congress-S), who too had fought under the banner of the LDF in the 1987 Assembly poll.
The tally
The LDF candidate polled 67,303 votes, followed by the UDF (46,347 votes) and the BJP (35,270 votes). Ramachandran Nair had won from Chengannur in 2016 defeating P.C. Vishnunath of the Congress by a margin of 7,983 votes.
The outcome is significant for the ruling front as it is seen as an assessment of the two-year-old State government. Mr. Cherian maintained a steady lead from the beginning of the counting which started at 8 a.m.
He made inroads into the UDF stronghold panchayats of Mannar, Pandanad and Ala and Chengannur municipality. He also polled big in Mulakuzha, Budhanoor, Chennithala, Cheriyanad, Venmoni and Puliyoor panchayats.
KC(M) bastion
In Thiruvanvandoor panchayat, which is ruled by the Kerala Congress (M) with the support of UDF and LDF members, the UDF finished in the third position behind the NDA.
Compared to the 2016 Assembly poll, the LDF vote share has gone up by 14,423 votes. While the UDF’s vote share increased marginally by 1,450 votes, the NDA’s share went down by 7,412 votes. Mr. Pillai, who had contested here in the 2016 Assembly election, had 42,682 votes.
