ALAPPUZHA: Wednesday night was perhaps the longest for the candidates of the three fronts and their supporters in Chengannur who had been waiting nervously to know the outcome of the by-election on Thursday. While the UDF hopes that there was a last-minute swing in its favour following the outcry over the murder of the newly-married youth, Kevin Joseph, the LDF has dismissed the claim saying the voters had already made up their minds. The BJP considers the high voter turnout as indicative of the voters’ dissatisfaction with the two major fronts.
This time, Chengannur had 1,99,340 voters including 5,039 debutants, who had to choose from 17 candidates, including D. Vijayakumar (UDF), Saji Cheriyan (UDF) and P.S. Sreedharan Pillai (NDA). At least 6, 672 additional votes were polled this time with a total turnout of 1,52,035.
In 2016, LDF candidate K.K. Ramachandran Nair had emerged victorious with a margin of 7,983 votes when 1,45,363 votes were polled out of a total of 1,95,493 electors (74.36 percent). However, though the LDF wrested the seat from the UDF, there was no improvement in the vote share with only 224 additional votes compared to 2011.
The tough fight between UDF candidate P.C. Vishnunath and NDA candidate P.S. Sreedharan Pillai in 2016 had proved crucial in Mr Nair’s victory. While UDF tumbled to 44,897 votes (30.89 percent) from 65,156 (51.98 percent) in 2011, the NDA made a quantum leap from 6,062 (4.84 percent) in 2011 to 42, 682 (29.36 percent) in 2016.
Though LDF candidate C.S. Sujatha had secured 52,656 out of 1,25,345 polled votes (42 percent) in 2011, she trailed behind Mr Vishnunath by 12,500 votes.
Mr Nair won the seat in 2016 by retaining the vote share of 52,880 out of 1,45,363 polled votes (36.38 percent). So the additional votes could be crucial for all the fronts.
Congress (S) candidate Mamen Ipe had defeated R. Ramachandran Nair of NDP by a margin of 15,703 votes in 1987. The lowest margin was recorded in 1967 when K.G. Purushothaman Pillai of CPM won by 1,520 votes, defeating N.S.K. Pillai of the Congress
