Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and CPI(M) general secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan addressed the media, soon after the bye-elections results in Kerala were out on Thursday.
“This is a shining victory for the left in the state,” said Kodiyeri. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan added that the election results indicated that Left politics was gaining strength in the state. He also said that the Congress-led UDF is becoming insignificant in the state, while adding that the ‘evil seeds of communalism’ will not take root in Kerala’s soil, talking about the BJP’s ‘divisive’ politics.
In Kerala, the LDF won Konni (Pathanamthitta) and Vattiyoorkavu (Thiruvananthapuram) assembly constituencies with a significant margin. Konni was a significant victory for the LDF as it is considered to be a traditional UDF bastion. The Congress-led UDF won 3 Assembly seats, namely Manjeshwaram, Aroor and Ernakulam. The Aroor Assembly constituency was a significant win for the UDF as it is considered a traditional left stronghold.
Meanwhile, the BJP could not win a single seat in the bye-elections despite fielding party General Secretary K Surendran from Konni.
“In Vattiyoorkavu, the victory that LDF candidate VK Prashanth has is indicative of the direction that state politics will take,” Pinarayi said, highlighting that the LDF candidates had finished in the third position in the 2016 assembly elections as well as the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Thiruvananthapuram, which was a constituency on which the BJP had pinned its hopes.
VK Prakash won the Vattiyoorkavu seat by a significant margin of 14,465 votes.
In Manjeshwaram, another constituency on which the BJP had pinned hopes, UDF candidate MC Kamaruddheen of the IUML won by 7,923 votes.
Pinarayi also added that the election results came as a big blow to the Congress-led UDF, if the number of votes were considered.
“In reality, the Congress-led UDF is increasingly becoming insignificant in our state,” Pinarayi added. UDF managed to retain its Ernakulam assembly seat, by a slim majority of votes.
“This time the UDF won by a majority of 3,673 votes. In 2016 assembly elections, the Congress-led UDF had won by a majority of over 21,000 votes. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections too, the Congress candidate won by a big margin,” the Chief Minister stated, adding that the current trend was a big blow to the UDF in terms of votes.
Meanwhile, Aroor witnessed a photo finish with Congress candidate Shanimol Usman winning by a wafer-thin margin of 2,079 votes, defeating CPI(M)’s Manu C Pulikkal.
Promising to introspect on the defeat in Aroor constituency, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan stated, “What has dampened this shining victory of the LDF is the loss that it faced in the Aroor constituency. We will be specifically checking the reasons for the loss in Aroor.”
He also added that the LDF’s performance was also an acknowledgement of the welfare activities undertaken by the government in the state.
“We promise to work on more welfare activities and also streamline the functions of the LDF as well as the CPI(M),” Kodiyeri added.
In the bye-polls held for Pala constituency on October 23, the Left has captured the seat from the UDF citadel. LDF’s Mani C Kappan of NCP defeated his UDF rival Jose Tom Pulikkunnel of KC(M), while N Hari for the BJP ended in third place.
Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala thanked all voters who voted for the UDF. He also highlighted the Congress-led UDF’s victory in Aroor — a seat which the LDF has retained for decades.
“A congress candidate’s victory in Aroor is happening after PS Karthikeyan won in Aroor in the 1950s. It is a big victory. We captured a seat which the LDF had won by 35,000 votes last assembly elections” he said.
Chennithala also added that the party was taking its defeat in Konni and Vattiyoorkavu seriously.
“A UDF meet is convening on October 28 at the cantonment house at 3 pm. We will check what the reasons are and discuss what changes need to be brought in,” he added.
While the Manjeswaram bye-poll was necessitated after the death of the legislator PB Adbul Razak, the other constituencies fell vacant as the sitting MLAs had been elected to the Lok Sabha.