Massive win for Left in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: For the supporters of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the southern Indian state of Kerala, the searing day temperature well above 35 degrees Celsius was no hindrance as they danced, pranced and shouted victory slogans as the Front swept to a resounding victory in the assembly elections.

True to the pre-poll surveys and exit polls, the results were almost on target. The LDF bagged 98 of the 140 seats in the state assembly while the ruling United Democratic Front had to be content with only 42.

The result is a total reversal of the 2001 verdict when the Congress-led UDF had bagged 100 of the 140 seats, leaving 40 to the Left Front.

The only factor that did not change this time either was the position of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Despite its national presence, the party once again failed to win a seat in the Kerala assembly.

The new chief minister will be selected on May 13 when the party leaders meet in Delhi, CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechuri said after the results were announced.

When the counting had ended, the political scenario resembled a tsunami-like hit for the ruling UDF, with over a dozen of its ministers and senior leaders having been humbled by their opponents, some of them little known personalities in Kerala politics.

In contrast, almost all the senior leaders of the LDF came off with flying colours, with chief ministerial hopefuls V.S. Achuthanandan and Paloli Mohammad Kutty winning with fabulous margins. While Achuthanandan beat Satheeshan Pacheni in Malampuzha by a margin of 20,017 votes, Paloli Mohammad Kutty's winning margin was more handsome at 28,347.

While the UDF camp lay in shambles, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy performed his role to perfection in Puthupally, defeating the state president of the Students Federation of India, Sindhu, by a margin of over 19,000 votes.

But the picture was starkly different for many of his Cabinet colleagues and those who had been ministers in the A.K. Antony Cabinet. The defeated senior UDF leaders included K.R. Gowri Amma, who had only lost once before in her political career, Dominic Presentation, Cherkalam Abdulla, M.V. Raghavan, E.T. Mohammad Basheer, M.K. Muneer, A. Sujanapal, Kadavoor Sivadasan, K.P. Vishwanathan, Babu Divakaran, P. Sankaran, R. Balakrishna Pillai, K. Muraleedharan and T.M. Jacob.

More than the long list of defeated UDF leaders, what is significant is the setback that the Indian Union Muslim League and the Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran) suffered. While the IUML was reduced to single digits for the first time, DIC(K) could only win one seat out of the 18 it contested. Its president K. Muraleedharan was beaten in Koduvally, a sure bet for the UDF camp in past elections.

In some of the keenly awaited results, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan defeated Rajmohan Unnithan in Thalassery, former bureaucrat Alphons Kannanthanam defeated Joseph Vazhackan in Kanjirapally and Surendran Pillai defeated Shobhana George in Thiruvananthapuram.

Another important development is that the Communist Party of India Marxist (CPM) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) together have more than the number of seats that is required for a simple majority in the assembly, which is 71 seats.

The perceived strength of the other coalition partners of the LDF is therefore seen to be largely diminished as it gets ready to form a new government in the state.

The biggest of the LDF coalition partners after the CPM and the CPI are the Janata Dal (Secular) with 5 seats and the Kerala Congress (J) with 4 seats.

Another interesting factor in the poll result is that the Indian National League has, for the first time, managed to win a seat. Though it had been an LDF ally for long, the party had never had an MLA before.

Perhaps that was the strength of the tsunami-like LDF wave this time which swept away all that the UDF had to offer by way of a contest.

RESULTS
Winners and Losers

Prominent losers
K.R. Gouri Amma
P.K. Kunhalikutty
M.K. Muneer
K. Muraleedharan
E.T. Mohammad Basheer
M.V. Raghavan
Cherkalam Abdulla
Dominic Presentation
K.P. Vishwanathan
Kadavoor Sivadasan
Babu Divakaran
R. Balakrishna Pillai
P. Sankaran, T.M. Jacob
K. K. Ramachandran

Prominent winners
Oommen Chandy
V. S. Achuthanandan
Paloli Mohammad Kutty
Alphons Kannanthanam
K.T. Jaleel
Kodiyeri Balakrishnan