Hat-trick victory for Vijayan in Nadapuram
The Hindu
UDF puts up a strong fight in constituency
E.K. Vijayan, incumbent Communist Party of India (CPI) MLA from Nadapuram Assembly seat in Kozhikode district, continued his winning streak, though with a reduced margin of votes, when the final results were announced on Sunday evening. Of the total 1,75,671 votes polled, Mr. Vijayan, the Left Democratic Front candidate, got 80,287 votes while his United Democratic Front rival and Congress leader K. Praveen Kumar bagged 76,902 votes, thus getting a majority of 3,385 votes. M.P. Rajan of the National Democratic Alliance won 10,290 votes. In the 2016 polls, Mr. Vijayan’s margin of victory against Mr. Kumar was 4,749 votes. Since 1970, only CPI candidates have won from here and this is the third time Mr. Vijayan, a former district secretary of the party, is getting elected. Though it was earlier reported that the CPI would not give ticket to two-time legislators, the party relaxed the norm to allow one more term to them. Mr. Kumar had stayed put in Nadapuram even after his defeat in 2016 and it looks like he has given a tough fight to the CPI leader, considering the decline in the victory margin.The election authorities are gearing up for the counting of votes cast in the simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, scheduled to be held on June 4. The Collectors and Election Officers of Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli and Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) districts said on May 23 (Thursday) that their teams were ready for the counting of votes.
Responding to the prolonged water scarcity, the residents of the area took to the streets in protest on Wednesday. The protest, which drew attention to their plight, stopped only after the intervention of the police. It was not until 1.30 p.m. that a 4000-litre tanker was finally delivered by BWSSB, providing relief to the water-starved residents.