United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate Anoop Jacob swept 10 out of the 12 panchayats in the Piravom Assembly constituency while coasting to his big victory in the bypoll.
Ahead of polling, Mr. Anoop Jacob had told The Hindu that he will forge ahead of his rival M.J. Jacob of the Left Democratic Front government (LDF) in all except Thiruvankulam and Chottanikkara panchayats. He had claimed that the UDF will improve its performance in these two panchayats, considered LDF bastions. And he has proved true.
The LDF lead in these two panchayats fell from 850 and 1,330 votes in the last year's Assembly election to 365 and 171 votes respectively this time round.
The LDF candidate had managed to wrest leads of 141, 581, and 132 votes at Edakkattuvayal, Piravom, and Koothattukulam in that election.
However, this time the UDF wrested these panchayats back with leads of 638, 1,336, and 1,058 respectively.
Mulanthuruthy, Maneed, Ramamangalam, Pambakkuda, Amballoor, Thirumarady, and Elanji, which stayed with the UDF during the last election, albeit with small margins, reasserted their UDF affiliation this time. Mr. Anoop Jacob managed to increase the UDF's lead from three to four figures in some of these panchayats.
Mulanthuruthy gave him a lead of 1,522 votes compared to last year's 136 votes and Maneed 1,042 votes compared to last year's 541 votes. Pambakkuda showed its affinity for the UDF candidate by giving him a lead of 1,216 compared to last year's 108. The UDF made the biggest gain in Thirumarady, where its lead increased from a mere 919 votes during the last election to 2,197 in the bypoll. In Elanji also, the UDF candidate's margin improved from 1,452 to 1,892 votes.
BJP performance
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders will have a lot to ponder over in the coming days. For, its share of votes has come down in all the panchayats compared to the previous year's election.
In Thiruvankulam it dropped from 740 votes to 567, in Chottanikkara from 502 to 403, Mulanthuruthy from 316 to 273, Maneed from 228 to 126, Ramamangalam from 466 to 303, and in Pambakkuda from 244 to 205 votes. The party's vote dropped by 206 in Amballoor, 52 in Edakkattuvayal, 5 in Piravom, 37 in Thirumarady, 36 in Elanji, and by 32 votes in Koothattukulam.
