Lok Sabha Elections | Big win for Congress-led UDF in Kerala with 18 seats, BJP opens account
The Hindu
Congress-led UDF sweeps 18 of 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala, with BJP winning one, in major upset.
Dealing a heavy blow to the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) on Tuesday swept 18 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala, even as Thrissur fell to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in a remarkable upset victory for actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi.
The lone LDF win came through Minister for SC/ST Welfare K. Radhakrishnan of the CPI(M) who wrested Alathur from Congress’s sitting MP Remya Haridas.
Senior Congress leader and sitting MP Rahul Gandhi retained the Wayanad seat by a hefty margin of 3.64 lakh votes over his nearest rival, CPI’s Annie Raja. Mr. Gandhi won 6,47,445 votes.
In Thiruvananthapuram, sitting MP Shashi Tharoor of the Congress ensured a straight fourth term for himself by scraping past BJP candidate and Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar by a margin of 16,077 votes.
At one point, Mr. Chandrasekhar’s lead had soared to over 23,000 votes before it began a nosedive in the final rounds of counting. Mr. Tharoor won 3,58,155 votes. In Kozhikode, M.K. Raghavan (Congress) also ensured a fourth straight term.
Mr. Suresh Gopi enjoyed a smooth sailing in Thrissur, defeating his nearest rival the CPI’s V. S. Sunilkumar by a margin of 74,686 votes. Mr. Gopi won 4,12,338 votes to open the BJP’s Lok Sabha account in Kerala. Congress leader K. Muraleedharan was pushed to third position here.
Other than Mr. Sunilkumar and Ms Raja, the big names in the LDF camp who bit the dust on Tuesday included CPI(M) leaders K.K. Shailaja, T.M. Thomas Isaac, Elamaram Kareem, A. Vijayaraghavan and M.V. Jayarajan, and CPI’s Pannian Raveendran.
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