The first three wins in the lok Sabha election in Kerala went to the CPI(M)-led lDF even as the upper hand BJP’ O Rajagopal had maintained in Thiruvananthapuram till the completion of counting of 76 percent votes was lost with Congress candidate Shashi Tharoor, sitting MP and Union Minister, overtaking him in the last phase of counting.
CPI(M)’s PK Sreemathi and MB Rajesh and CPI candidate CN Jayadevan bagged the Kannur, Palakkad and Thrissur seats respectively with convincing margins while Marxist turncoat and candidate of the Congress-led UDF, NK Premachandran, won the Kollam seat by defeating CPI(M) Politbureau member MA Baby MlA by a margin of 37,850 votes.
In the State, UDF candidates had won or were winning 12 of the total 20 seats while the lDF had won or was winning the remaining eight seats. The BJP’s hopes of opening account in Kerala seemed to be waning as Tharoor established a convincing lead of over 7,000 votes over Rajagopal when 96 percent of the polled votes were counted.