Palakkad bypoll: UDF’s massive win a message to communal campaign by CPI(M) and BJP, says Kerala Opposition Leader

Kerala's Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan analyzes UDF's victory in Palakkad, attributing it to people's rejection of misinformation.

Kerala’s Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan has dubbed the massive victory posted by the United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate Rahul Mamkootathil as a message conveyed by the people of Palakkad Assembly constituency to the “communally-loaded misinformation campaign” unleashed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

He was addressing a press conference at the Ernakulam District Congress Committee office in the wake of the declaration of the results in the byelection held in Palakkad and Chelakkara Assembly constituencies and Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency on Saturday (November 23, 2024).

Pointing out that Mr. Mamkootathil posted almost a five-fold increase in the majority compared to what the UDF candidate Shafi Parambil had managed in the 2021 Assembly election, Mr. Satheesan said that the verdict served as a message that only the UDF is capable of stopping the BJP.

“The CPI(M) and the BJP had jointly fought the UDF in Palakkad. In fact, CPI(M) had tried to weaken the Congress and the UDF and not the BJP,” he said.

Mr. Satheesan said Minister for Public Works P. A. Mohamed Riyas continued to maintain that the Chief Minister and the CPI(M) are “shining” and that there is no anti-incumbency. “They should continue to believe that,” said Mr. Satheesan said rather sarcastically.

He said that the verdicts of the byelections held in the last three years continue to maintain a pattern, whether it is Thrikkakara, Puthuppally or Palakkad. In all these bye-elections, the UDF candidates managed to increase the majority of the party incumbents by two, four and five folds respectively.

Mr. Satheesan said that the UDF had expected its candidates to win by around 3,000 votes in Chelakkara. Declining to accept the defeat there as a setback, he said that the UDF candidate managed to cut down the LDF lead in the constituency by more than 28,000 compared to the Assembly election in 2021. “Our fight there should not be taken lightly,” he said.