The ruling Left Democratic Front of Kerala that pitched the development agenda has failed to take its Assembly tally to 100 as the Congress retained its pocket borough of Thrikkakara where a byelection was held.
Congress candidate Uma Thomas won by a record margin, defeating CPM’s Jo Joseph in one of the noisiest byelections the state has witnessed in recent memory.
The bypoll was necessitated by the death of P.T. Thomas, and the Congress gave the ticket to his widow. The CPM had picked Joseph, a well-known cardiologist.
Uma received 72,770 votes to win by a record margin of 25,016 votes, more than the previous best margin of 22,406 votes by Congress’s Benny Behanan when the constituency came into being in 2011.
While Joseph polled 47,754 votes, the BJP candidate A.N. Radhakrishnan polled just 12,957, even less than the 15,483 votes the party had received in the Assembly election.
Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had campaigned for Joseph. “We are provided an opportunity to take the 99 seats (in the Assembly) to 100,” Vijayan had said.
Uma’s victory was so conclusive from the word go that at no point did her CPM rival even come close to her. As she kept strengthening her lead with each round of counting and the margin increased to about 7,000, Congress workers hit the streets in celebrations.
Uma credited her late husband’s popularity for the convincing win.
Joseph accepted defeat and said he did what his party wanted him to do by highlighting the development agenda of the LDF government.
The Congress lost no time in pinning the defeat on Pinarayi Vijayan and declaring it as a mandate by the people of a key constituency from the state’s commercial capital on the performance of the LDF government that won a rare second consecutive term just a year ago.
But the party leaders were divided on whether the chief minister should take the burden for the loss. While Congress president K. Sudhakaran demanded Vijayan’s resignation, his party colleague and leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan had no such demands and noted that the government was elected with a five-year mandate.
Sudhakaran pinned the defeat on his arch rival Vijayan. “This defeat is on the chief minister who should come out and explain to the people,” he told reporters in Kannur.
“The captain (as CPM often addresses Vijayan) has bit the dust. They lost in spite of their chief minister, cabinet ministers and MLAs unleashing everything. This is the power of democracy,” said Sudhakaran.
Satheesan saw the victory only as a beginning of the party’s resurgence. “We take this as a reminder for us to work tirelessly and strengthen the Congress and the UDF,” he told reporters.
He urged the LDF government to drop its ambitious K-Rail semi-high speed rail project that was one of the issues.
The CPM tried to absolve the chief minister from the responsibility of the defeat. “The election was handled by the district unit of the party. It was the party’s decision to get the chief minister and ministers to campaign here,” Ernakulam district CPM secretary C.N. Mohanan told reporters.
Odisha bypoll
The Naveen Patnaik-led BJD won the Brajaraj Nagar Assembly bypoll in Odisha.
BJD candidate Alaka Mohanty, widow of sitting MLA Kishore Mohanty, defeated her nearest Congress rival, Kishore Chandra Patel by 66,122 votes. The BJP, which is the main Opposition party in the state, was relegated to third place.
