LDF may have lost its traditional votes in Vadakara
The Hindu
Alleged trade-off of votes between BJP and UDF
The CPI(M) has blamed trade-off of votes between the BJP and the UDF for the defeat of the LDF candidate in the Vadakara Assembly constituency. From the voting pattern, it goes without saying that the LDF may also have lost some of its traditional votes here. Vadakara was among the only two seats that the front lost in the district when a Left wave swept across the State, ensuring a second term for the Pinarayi Vijayan government. The loss was even more troublesome for the CPI(M), as the winner was the wife of a dissident party leader, who was allegedly murdered on a May 4 nine years ago after he broke away to form a new party. C.K. Nanu of the Janata Dal (Secular), an LDF ally, had been winning from the constituency since 2011. However, the seat was handed over to the Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD), another offshoot of the Janata Parivar, which returned to the front after a more-than-a-decade stint with the UDF, this time. But LJD leader Manayath Chandran lost to K.K. Rema of the Revolutionary Marxist Party of India (RMPI), founded by the late CPI(M) dissident T.P. Chandrasekharan, by a margin of 7,491 votes. The UDF had announced unconditional support for Ms. Rema’s candidature.More Related News