No easy win for LDF

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The four constituencies in the city went against the statewide trend of gifting a landslide victory to LDF as the left could win only Kazhakoottam through Kadakampally Surendran. Thiruvananthapuram and Vattiyoorkavu went the UDF way (sitting MLAs V.S. Sivakumar and K. Muraleedharan) whereas Nemom went to the BJP, creating history.

As against exit poll predictions, the health minister improved his lead from 5,352 in 2011 to 10,905. The margin of Mr Muraleedharan, however, came down from 16,167 to 7,622 amidst fierce competition from BJP and LDF. Keeping the trend in the Lok Sabha and civic elections, Nemom went in favour of O. Rajagopal, who defeated sitting MLA V. Sivankutty by a margin of 8,671 votes.

Mr Surendran emerged the lone winner for the CPM in the city as he defeated M.A. Waheed by a margin of 7,347 votes. Before Mr Sivakumar, Thiruvananthapuram (formerly Thiruvananthapuram West) was held by an array of parties including RSP, Muslim League and CMP.

On the other hand, Vattiyoorkavu had intermittently favoured both LDF and UDF.
Nemom, formerly Thiruvananthapuram East, was a Congress bastion before CPM’s V Sivankutty won it for two terms from 2006.

“The victory of Mr Surendran is an acknowledgement that people believed in the slogan that LDF will come and set everything right. The party will decide and look into the failures in other two constituencies,” mayor V.K. Prasanth said. Thiruvananthapuram district traditionally swings to the winning side. It kept the tradition this year as LDF wave struck all the nine constituencies in suburbs barring Kovalam and Aruvikkara.