Thumping victory for Congress in Kerala bypoll

The ruling CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala suffered a major embarrassment as the Congress candidate got a thumping victory in an Assembly bypoll to Thrikkakkara in Kochi on Friday.

Despite an aggressive campaign from the ruling LDF, the Congress's Uma Thomas retained the party's sitting seat with a record margin of around 25,000 votes.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and most of the ministers were involved in the campaign and highlighted their development agenda, particularly the Silverline semi-high-speed rail project that was facing stiff resistance from a large section of people.

The Congress interpreted the election result as the people's evaluation of the one-year-old second Pinarayi Vijayan government and demanded the chief minister's resignation.

Since the LDF has a comfortable majority of 99 in the 140 member Kerala Assembly, the election result does not pose a threat to the government.

Read: Finger-pointing, counter-allegations mark Kerala bypoll

The CPM's surprise move of fielding traveller cardiologist Dr. Jo Joseph, who was working at a church-run hospital, reportedly with the intention of wooing the Christian vote bank turned out to be futile. The CPM camp also did not get a benefit from the support of exiled Congress leader K V Thomas.

The bye-election was conducted following the death of sitting MLA P T Thomas of the Congress. His wife Uma, who was a Congress worker during college, was unanimously made the candidate by Congress leaders.

Thrikkakkara was the sitting seat of the Congress since the formation of the constituency in 2011. While the Congress's Benny Behnan won with a margin of 22,409 votes in 2011, Uma's lead increased to around 25,000.

The election result is a big relief for the Congress as it is the first poll after the new party leadership - comprising Opposition leader V D Satheeshan and Kerala PCC president K Sudhakaran - took over. An unusual unity was evident in the Congress this time.

The BJP's efforts to woo Christian votes by raising the 'love jihad' and 'narcotic jihad' campaigns also did not work as the party's vote share went down compared to previous elections. While the BJP secured 15,483 votes in 2021, this time they got only 12,950 votes.

Votes for the Kitex-Group-backed Twenty20, which secured 10 per cent of the votes in 2021, also seem to have favoured the Congress in this election.

The BJP candidate may even lose the deposit money as the votes secured were less than one-sixth of the polled valid votes.