Congress strongman wrests Kannur seat

Kannur: Congress strongman  K. Sudhakaran is back with a bang in his home turf with a  thumping majority of 94,550 votes. He secured 5,29,741 votes while P.K. Sreemathy Teacher of the CPM bagged 4,35,182 votes. BJP leader C.K. Padmanabhan got 68,509 votes, improving the vote share from 51,636 votes in 2014.

Among the seven legislative constituency segments, Sudhakaran has won all except two  CPM citadels of Mattannur and Dharmadam. In Kannur legislative constituency segment, he got  70,683 votes whereas Sreemathy Teacher got only 47,260 votes. The UDF citadels of Irikkur, Peravur and Azhikkode constituency segments ensured clear majority for Sudhakaran.

The CPM had staged an intense campaign in the constituency much ahead of Sudhakaran who started the campaign late.

It may be recalled that Sreemathy Teacher was seeking a  second consecutive term and she had defeated Sudhakaran in 2014 by a thin margin of 6,566 votes. Sources close to Sudhakaran pointed out that last time the CPM had fielded two namesakes against Sudhakaran who received over 8000 votes.  In the  2016 elections to the state legislature, the LDF had won four seats while UDF won three, Taliparamba, Mattannur, Dharmadam and Kannur, while UDF bagged Azhikode, Irikkur and Peravoor.    In 2014, Sreemathy Teacher had bagged 4,27,622  against Sudhakaran (4,21,056) while  P.C. Mohanan of BJP got 51636 votes. In 2009, Sudhakaran had won the seat with 4,32,878 votes whereas K.K. Ragesh of the CPM was defeated (3,89,727 votes).  Teh BJP secured only 27,123 votes.