UDF leader K. Sudhakaran celebrating his victory in the Kannur Lok Sabha constituency on Tuesday. | Photo Credit: S.K. Mohan
Despite fielding heavyweight candidates in its direct contest against the Congress, as was the case elsewhere in Kerala, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) failed to pull off victories in north Kerala.
A conspicuous anti-incumbency sentiment against the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] – led LDF government and communal undercurrents have shaped the electoral outcomes this time with the Congress- Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) combine winning eight out of the nine Lok Sabha seats in the region.
Last time, the Congress won from seven constituencies – Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikode, Vadakara, Palakkad, and Alathur and IUML from its traditional seats Malappuram, and Ponnani. This time, the CPI(M), which fielded Minister for Devaswoms K. Radhakrishnan, wrested the Alathur seat.
He beat incumbent MP Ramya Haridas of the Congress by a margin of 20,000 votes. The BJP candidate T.N. Sarasu got more than 1.8 lakh votes.
With huge margin
As expected Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who sought re-election from Wayanad, won the seat with a huge margin of 3.6 lakh votes. In the 2019 polls, his victory margin was 4.3 lakh votes. This time he had to face tougher opponents – Annie Raja of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and BJP State president K. Surendran.
IUML leader E.T. Mohammed Basheer, who swapped his sitting seat in Ponnani with his party colleague M.P. Abdussamad Samadani in Malappuram, won by a massive margin of over three lakh votes. Mr. Samadani won the seat by a margin of 2.35 lakh votes. The anti-IUML lobby in the Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, the biggest organisation of Muslim scholars, failed to upset his chances. The CPI(M), which had nominated former IUML secretary K.S. Hamza, secured 3.2 lakh votes.
The two northern constituencies of Kasaragod and Kannur, where sitting Congress MPs Rajmohan Unnithan and K. Sudhakaran were in the fray, won the seats comfortably and with bigger victory margins than last time. Both secured leads of more than one lakh against their nearest rivals of the CPI(M)-M.V. Balakrishnan and M.V. Jayarajan respectively.
In Vadakara
The keenly watched Vadakara constituency where legislators K.K. Shailaja of the CPI(M) and Shafi Parambil of the Congress were pitted against each other in a no-holds-barred contest saw the latter romping home at the hustings. Mr. Parambil secured a margin of 1.14 lakh votes, more than 30,000 votes of his predecessor. K. Muraleedharan received in 2019.
Despite Ms. Shailaja’s popularity, Mr. Parambil’s blitzkrieg campaigning worked in his favour.
The biggest victory was that of sitting Congress MP V.K. Sreekandan, who retained the Palakkad seat by a margin of over 75,000 by defeating CPI(M)‘s Polit Bureau member A. Vijayaraghavan. Last time his victory margin was below 12,000 votes.
In the prestigious Kozhikode constituency, three-time MP M.K. Raghavan of the Congress won the seat in a direct flight with CPI(M) leader Elamaram Kareem. He too recorded a huge margin of 1.46 votes. Last time his victory margin was a little over 85,000.
