Congress candidate Chandy Oommen romped home in the Puthuppally Assembly bye-election on Friday, September 8, winning the constituency’s mandate with an unprecedented lead of 37,719 votes. For context, the highest margin secured by his father and two-time Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who had represented the segment consecutively for five decades, was 33,255 votes against CPI(M)’s Suja Susan George in the 2011 Assembly election. Chandy Oommen’s total of 80,144 votes is also the highest ever vote count any candidate has recorded in Puthuppally. Jaick C Thomas, who was the CPI(M)’s candidate for the bye-election, came a distant second with 42,425 votes. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Lijin Lal registered a paltry 6,558 votes.
The bye-election, which was necessitated by the demise of Oommen Chandy on July 18 after a prolonged battle with cancer, had witnessed a heated contest between the Congress and CPI(M) over the past month. While the Congress capitalised on Puthuppally’s affection for Oommen Chandy and his reputation as a people’s politician, presenting his son as a reflection of the late veteran, the Communist party launched an election campaign firmly rooted in the narrative that there had been little to no development in Puthuppally under the Congress governance.
Prominent CPI(M) leaders including CM Pinarayi Vijayan had descended on Puthuppally in the last few weeks, attending several public meetings and highlighting the development initiatives implemented by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the state over the past seven years. Besides, though Jaick had contested and lost against Oommen Chandy in the 2016 and 2021 Assembly elections, he had significantly reduced Oommen Chandy’s vote margin in 2021. This helped the CPI(M) see him as a candidate with a fighting chance in Puthuppally, despite the constituency’s overwhelming support for Congress in the wake of Oommen Chandy’s demise.
But the ‘OC wave’, as the media calls it, worked in favour of Chandy Oommen as expected, ensuring him a landslide victory which even surpassed that of his predecessor. Adding to people’s sentiments towards Oommen Chandy was a Thiruvananthapuram court verdict on September 2, just a few days ahead of the bye-poll, accepting a CBI report that gave a clean chit to Oommen Chandy in the solar scam sexual assault case.
Chandy Oommen’s win parallels that of the Thrikkakara Assembly bye-election in July last year, when United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate Uma Thomas swept past LDF’s Jo Joseph with a record margin of more than 25,000 votes. Like Chandy, Uma was also fighting her maiden election battle, following the death of her husband and Congress legislator PT Thomas. Her campaign had also largely depended on the popularity of Thomas, which in turn ensured her a thumping victory.
Puthuppally has a total of 182 polling booths, and the counting of votes in the electronic voting machines was conducted in 13 rounds. Up to 32 members of the Central Armed Police Forces and a 12-member armed police battalion were deployed for security at the counting station.