Kerala’s ruling CPI(M)-led lDF on Thursday scored a morale-boosting victory in the crucial by-election held on Monday in the Chengannur Assembly constituency in Alappuzha district, which literally had become a referendum on the two-year-old lDF Government’s performance.
CPI(M) candidate Saji Cherian won the Chengannur seat for the lDF by a margin of 20,956 votes, which is a record in the constituency, over his nearest UDF rival D Vijayakumar of the Congress while the NDA’s BJP candidate PS Sreedharan Pillai came a disappointingly distant third. The lDF’s winning margin in the 2016 polls was 7,983 votes.
Cherian polled 67,303 votes, up 14,423 from the 52,880 votes CPI(M)’s KK Ramachandran Nair, whose death in January had necessitated the bypoll, had polled to win the seat in 2016. The defeat is extremely embarrassing for the UDF but Vijayakumar managed to bag 46,347 votes, 1,450 more than what his party colleague PC Vishnunath had polled in the last election.
The NDA, which had in the initial stages hoped to turn the bypoll into its threshold to capturing power in the State, suffered a huge setback with Sreedharan Pillai, a former State BJP chief, polling only 35,270 votes, which showed a drop by 7,412 votes from the 42,682 votes he himself had bagged in the 2016 election in this constituency. Cherian’s stunning victory literally became a morale-booster for the lDF Government as the bypoll was held when its popularity was seemingly at its lowest since it took charge two years ago and Marxist Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had come under fire over lapses of the Home Department he was looking after. “But I have always held that people are the ultimate judge,” a proud Pinarayi told newsmen after news of the lDF victory came.
“The people have pronounced their verdict and that verdict is literally a declaration of overwhelming support for the lDF’s policies. It is proof of the people’s ability to understand the truth even amidst the powerful campaigns of lie,” he said.
Chengannur had witnessed record turnout of voters at the booths for exercising their franchise in the bypoll held on Monday.
There was a 76.25-percent turnout despite the heavy rains that lashed almost all parts of the constituency which had a total number of 1,99,340 voters. The voter turnout in the 2016 Assembly election was 74.36 percent.
What has embarrassed the UDF and BJP more than their setback is the fact that the lDF has proved its domination over the entire constituency with Cherian winning lead in all its eleven local administration areas of which at least two were UDF strongholds. One Panchayat where the BJP had led in the last election also gave Cherian impressive lead.
Neither the UDF nor the NDA could raise challenge to the left at any stage of the process of counting of votes polled in 181 booths. According to observers, the outcome showed that no anti-incumbency factor was at work in Chengannur. “It is indeed a political vote. Otherwise the support for Cherian could not have been this widespread,” said a Kochi-based pollster.
“My victory shows that the people want the lDF Government to continue the good works it has carried out in the past 24 months,” Cherian said. “I have got the support of all sections. All communities have stood by the lDF. Many community leaders had told me that they wanted the left to win because they did not want this Government to become weak,” he added.
Former chief minister and senior Congress leader Oommen Chandy said, “This is a totally unexpected outcome. My feeling is that political issues had not got prominence in the bypoll,” while Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala alleged that the lDF had misused official machinery for influencing the voters.
“The State’s general mood has failed to reflect in Chengannur,” Chennithala, a native of the constituency, said. Alleging that there was some kind of adjustment between the CPI(M) and BJP in Chengannur, UDF candidate Vijayakumar said the Congress leadership should examine the organizational frailties that had led to his embarrassing defeat.
Reiterating his earlier charge that there was a pact for cross-voting between the UDF and lDF, Sreedharan Pillai admitted that the position adopted by certain community organizations – like the SNDP Yogam of Hindu Ezhavas – had affected the NDA adversely. “However, I can say that there has been no leak in the BJP votes,” he said.
Sources in the BJP said that the equivocal stand adopted by the BDJS, the party’s biggest ally in Kerala, also had contributed to the NDA’s setback. “There should be a sincere effort to find out what had gone wrong. Also, there are people who feel that the State BJP unit alone is not responsible for the setback. There could have been other factors as well,” said a top party leader.