Bypolls: Cong wins all three seats in Kerala

The LDF suffered a blow in politically sensitive Kannur, where Congress candidate and former CPI-M MP A P Abdullakutty emerged victorious by a margin of 12,000 votes over CPI-M's M V Jayarajan.

Abdullakutty, who represented Kannur twice in parliament on a CPI-M ticket, was expelled from the party a few months back following serious differences with the CPI-M leadership, after which he joined the Congress.

Congress candidates Dominic Presentation trounced CPI-M's P N Sinulal in Ernakulam by over 8000 votes, while his colleague A A Shukur retained Alappuzha seat by defeating G Krishaparasad of CPI by 4000 votes.

The November 7 by-polls were necessitated by resignation of sitting Congress MLAs K Sudhakaran (Kannur), K V Thomas (Ernakulam) and K C Venugopal (Alappuzha) on getting elected to Lok Sabha.

The results showed that UDF had been able to consolidate its Lok Sabha performance of lifting 16 of the 20 seats in the state.The current round of elections were seen as a dress rehearsal for the 2011 assembly polls to be preceded by the civic elections next year.
Despite its best efforts and high voltage campaign, the LDF failed to reverse the rout it faced in Parliamentary polls.

The outcome of today's bypoll will not have any impact on the stability of the government, which is entering its fourth year.

The campaigning for the by-polls had been unusually vigorous right from the start.
The run-up witnessed sharp exchanges between LDF and UDF in Kannur over issues like alleged irregularities in the voters list and deployment of central forces.

Following the UDF complaints, Kannur District Collector K V Balakrishnan was removed by the Election Commission after the poll process got under way.

Overruling the state government's reservations, central paramilitary forces were deployed in Kannur, under whose strict monitoring the voting took place.

The performance of the BJP was dismal this time as well, with the party candidates forfeiting deposits in all the three segments.