Surprise winners and shock losers in Kerala poll

Thiruvananthapuram: Three leading women candidates, all of who were tipped to hold top positions if they won, bit the dust in the civic elections in Kerala.

In Kochi, former chief minister E.K. Nayanar’s daughter Usha Praveen suffered a shock defeat in the city corporation election. Her defeat came on a day when Left Democratic Front candidates were winning across the state.

Another shock defeat in Kochi was that of Deepthi Mary Varghese of the Congress, who was projected as a mayoral candidate if she and her party had won in the corporation election. A third celebrity woman candidate, M.V. Girija suffered defeat in the contest to the Kannur city corporation. Girija is the daughter of the late Communist Marxist Party leader, M.V. Raghavan.

One surprise winner in the poll was the Twenty20 party, supported by the Kitex group, a Kochi-based textile company. The party was launched in 2013 with the support of Kitex promoters, Sabu Jacob and Bobby Jacob.

Even before the final results were out, the party appeared headed for a majority in the Kizhakkambalam village panchayat, leading in a number of seats. The party was launched with the aim of making the panchayat self-sufficient by 2020.

All the leading political parties had contested against Twenty20, but the party succeeded apparently because it had already done a considerable amount of groundwork, initiating vegetable and paddy cultivation on fallow land, and also distributing vegetable and fruit-tree saplings to villagers well ahead of the election.

In Munnar, the Pembilai Orumai (Women’s Unity) group that was formed initially to demand higher wages for tea estate workers, and then fielded candidates for the local body poll, also tasted success. One of its candidates won, and half a dozen others were leading in their wards.

Also among the winners were Karayi Rajan and Karayi Chandrasekharan, both accused in the Fazal murder case. The two CPM candidates won respectively in the Kannur district panchayat and the Thalassery municipality.