Congress candidate wins with highest victory margin

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress-led UDF in Kerala registered a stupendous victory in the Puthuppally constituency in Kottayam district on Friday defeating the ruling CPM-led LDF candidate by a record margin.

UDF candidate Chandy Oommen surpassed the victory margin record of his father and former Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy whose death in July had necessitated the bypoll. Chandy Oommen defeated his nearest CPM rival Jaick C Thomas by a margin of 37,719 votes. This is the third time in a row that Jaick tasted defeat in the constituency.

Oommen Chandy who represented the Puthupally constituency for 53 years without a break, had recorded his highest victory margin of 33,255 in 2011 when he defeated CPM's Suja Susan George.

While Chandy Oommen secured 80,144 votes, Jaick C Thomas got 42425 votes. The BJP candidate Lijin Lal came a poor third securing only 6554 votes.

Soon after the declaration of results, Chandy Oommen dedicated the victory to his father terming it as the 13th consecutive assembly poll win. "I want to express my sincere gratitude to the voters of Puthupally for the historic win. I promise to work for the betterment of all sections including those who voted against us. We will take everyone on board for the development of Puthupally," he said.

The 37-year-old Chandy is currently chairman of Youth Congress's national outreach cell.

While the Congress victory was on expected lines because of the sympathy wave that blew across the constituency following Oommen Chandy's death, what has stunned the ruling LDF is the huge drop in its vote share. Compared to 2021 assembly polls, the LDF vote share dropped by 11,903 votes.

Though Chandy’s victory is not going to make any difference to the ruling LDF which has 99 MLAs in the 140-member Kerala legislative assembly, the huge margin of defeat has definitely come as a major embarrassment to the Pinarayi Vijayan led dispensation. The LDF went to the polls in the backdrop of serious allegations of corruption against chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Veena Vijayan, the crisis in the farm sector, financial crunch faced by the state and failure in various fronts.

The Congress on the other hand is elated as it succeeded in adding 16,772 more votes compared to the previous elections, which is quite significant in the run-up to the crucial Lok Sabha polls in 2024. The Congress, while admitting that the goodwill enjoyed by the late Oommen Chandy was a major factor in their candidate's victory, the verdict was also against the LDF government's failure.

CPM state secretary M V Govindan had himself declared during the campaign that the Puthupally bypoll would be a referendum on the LDF government.

However, after the declaration of results on Friday, the CPM leader did a volte-face claiming that the UDF victory was due to a sympathy wave. "It is not a verdict against the LDF government's performance.”

LDF convenor E P Jayarajan accused the BJP of transferring its votes to the Congress candidate. While he raised questions about the sharp fall in BJP votes, the LDF leader had no convincing explanation for the huge drop in the ruling front’s votes in the constituency.

Political observers say the LDF claim of BJP  transferring its vote to Congress is farfetched since there is a huge gap between the victory margin of Chandy and the drop in BJP votes. The BJP vote share came down by 5136 votes while the Congress candidate's victory margin was 37,179 votes.

Moreover, the ruling LDF had also registered a huge drop in votes despite ruling six of the eight panchayats in Puthupally constituency.

Oommen Chandy's daughters Maria Oommen and Achu Oommen hailed the victory of their brother. They said the people of Puthupally had given the biggest guard of honour and a befitting send off to their father. Moreover, the verdict is also an answer to the ruling front which had repeatedly asked what Oommen Chandy had done for the constituency in 53 years.

The LDF's main campaign plank was the lack of development in the constituency despite Oommen Chandy's uninterrupted stint for 53 years.

UDF workers came out on the streets across Kottayam district to celebrate the victory of Chandy Oommen.