The Kerala Congress (M) retained its speck of representation in the country’s Parliament with its candidate Thomas Chazhikadan winning the Kottayam constituency by an impressive margin of 1,06,259 votes.
While Mr. Chazhikadan polled 4,21,046 votes, his rival candidate from the Left Democratic Front (LDF) V.N. Vasavan could garner only 3,14,787 votes.
During his winning streak, Mr. Chazhikadan established a clear lead in six Assembly segments except Vaikom and even reached close to the margin of 1.20 lakh votes set by Jose K. Mani in 2014.
Despite the defeat, the LDF, could maintain a vote share of close to 35%.
Though the NDA candidate P.C. Thomas could finish only at the third spot, he could raise the front’s vote share from 5.3% in 2014 to 16.95% this time and garnered a total of 1,55,135 votes.
Jijo Joseph of the Bahujan Samajwadi Party garnered 7,403 votes while NOTA came at the fifth position with 7,191 votes.
E.V. Prakash, the candidate fielded by the Socialist Unity Centre of India, garnered just 2216 votes.
The victory of Mr. Chazhikadan also serves a shot in the arm for the Jose K. Mani-led faction, which was instrumental in picking him as the party candidate over the KC(M) strongman P.J. Joseph.
Relying on its traditional support base in the region, the party has managed to fend off the brazen power feud and retain its speck of representation in the Parliament.
Speaking to media persons, Mr. Chazhikadan dedicated his victory to K.M. Mani. “This is the result of a collective effort put up by the United Democratic Front. The people here have been with us right from the beginning while the arrival of Rahul Gandhi to the State’s election scene was great shot in the arm,” he said