JOIN USThe Congress and the CPM — the two leading political parties of Kerala — recorded fall in vote shares in the Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress showed 31.1 per cent vote share, fall of 9.03 per cent from 40.13 per cent in 2009. The CPM which had a 30.48 per cent share in 2009, showed a decline to 21.6 per cent.
On the other hand, the BJP, while yet again failing to open its account in the state, recorded a 10.3 per cent vote share; in 2009 it had only secured 6.43 per cent of the votes.
However, both the Congress and CPM had contested in fewer number of seats in the April 10 elections. While the Congress contested from 15 of the 20 LS seats in the state, the CPM fielded candidates in only 10 constituencies. In 2009, the parties had fielded 17 and 14 candidates, respectively.
The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), an ally of the Congress in the United Democratic Front (UDF), had a 4.5 per cent vote share, a climb-down from 5.07 per cent in 2009. Independent candidates, including five fielded by the Left, secured a 11.4 per cent vote share.
The None Of The Above (NOTA) option that made its debut in the election had 1.2 per cent voters using it. Malappuram constituency had the most number of NOTA votes – 21,829. In Thiruvananthapuram, the figure stood lowest at 3,344.