Thiruvananthapuram
Kerala appeared to vote local rather than national, with the ruling CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) suffering a humiliating defeat and winning just one of the 20 seats up for grabs. It shared the spoils with arch-rival BJP, that went on to open its account in the state when star candidate and debutant Suresh Gopi won from Thrissur.
In the bargain, Opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) nearly reprised its 2019 margin of victory with an 18-1-1 margin in an election that lacked a compelling pull factor. In the 2019 elections, the UDF rode the Sabarimala wave, which combined well with the nomination of ‘prospective Congress Prime Minister’ Rahul Gandhi from Wayanad, who went on to win by a record margin.
Rahul wins again
Gandhi burnished his credentials with a second successive win from Wayanad, leading the UDF sweep. Nine UDF candidates managed to secure a margin of one lakh-plus and two of them raised the margin to two lakh- plus, according to reports coming in late on Tuesday, which signals the extent of strong anti-incumbency against the ruling LDF, say poll watchers. The results are more a vote against the LDF than in favour of the UDF.
LDF majors bite dust
The LDF’s strongest candidates bit the dust as the UDF juggernaut rode from the North to the South. Among them are former finance minister Thomas Issac in Pathanamthitta; sitting MP AM Ariff in Alappuzha, who was the sole party candidate to win last time; former education minister C Raveendranath in Chalakkudy; former LDF convenor A Vijayaraghavan in Palakkad; prominent CITU leader Elamaram Kareem in Kozhikode; senior CPI leader Annie Raja in Wayanad; former health minister KK Shailaja in Vadakara; senior leaders MV Balakrishnan in Kasaragod; and MV Jayarajan in Kannur.
Strong anti-incumbency
The strong anti-incumbency was worsened by alleged shenanigans involving Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his family and the various acts of omissions and commissions on the part of the government that is in office for a rare second term in the State. Critics point to reported instances of police highhandedness, criminal negligence and visuals of a Chief Minister moving around in a convoy of upwards of 40 vehicles that distanced him and the government from the reach of the public. But Vijayan and party officials have vehemently dismissed these allegations as far-fetched.
Major UDF winners
As for the Opposition UDF, the biggest winners apart from Rahul Gandhi are Shashi Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram for a record fourth term; Congress party General Secretary KC Venugopal in Alappuzha; Hibi Eden from Ernakulam, who won with a record 2.50 lakh-plus votes; Dean Kuriakose in Idukki; K Sudhakaran in Kannur; NK Premachandran (RSP) in Kollam; MK Raghavan in Kozhikode; ET Mohammed Basheer (IUML) in Malappuram; MP Abdussamad Samadani in Ponnani; and Shafi Parambil in Vadakara.
BJP vote share
As for the BJP, debutant Suresh Gopi won big time from the favoured Thrissur, where the Prime Minister had addressed meetings and held a road show. Elsewhere, outgoing Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar neared pulling off the impossible in Thiruvananthapuram, rattling up a lead of 23,000 votes over incumbent Shashi Tharoor, only to forfeit it as counting progressed in the minority belt along the coastal belt that has always stood by Tharoor. Elsewhere, the BJP improved vote share in a number of constituencies, raising the overall share to nearly 19 per cent. The final figure is still awaited.