Hike in vote share recognition for LDF, says Kodiyeri Balakrishnan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Monday said that the LDF’s success in reducing UDF’s majority by 25,000 votes and increasing its own vote share by more than 1 lakh votes (9 per cent) indicated the recognition received from electorate. Reacting to the poll results, Kodiyeri said Malappuram was the strongest bastion of the UDF. Late E Ahmed had secured a majority of 2 lakh votes in 2014 polls. In that election the SDPI got 47,853 votes and Welfare Party 29,216 votes. But this time around both parties had actively worked for Muslim League’s victory. CPM state secretary said SDPI had secured 5.61 per cent votes and Welfare Party 3.4 per cent votes.

If the vote share of the two parties is added up to UDF kitty  then the latter should have got 61 per cent votes. However, UDF could manage to get only 55 per cent votes. Kodiyeri said UDF got 77,502 more votes compared to 2014. Despite getting the additional 77,000 plus votes of SDPI and Welfare Party, the UDF could not secure a victory on the expected lines. On the other hand, LDF increased its vote tally by 1,01,303 votes which also revealed that the politics put forward by the front had gained wider acceptance of people. The CPM leader said both Muslim League and BJP had tried to polarise the polls on communal lines. The BJP had claimed that its candidate would register a six fold increase in vote tally has suffered a major defeat.