In every discussion regarding this Lok Sabha election, Attingal was one constituency which was taken for granted as the Left’s citadel; unchallenged for 28 years. The Left Democratic Front’s A. Sampath, a three-time MP, went into the election with the confidence of having quadrupled his lead in 2014, winning by 69,378 votes against Bindu Krishna of the Congress.
Yet, as the results started streaming in on Thursday, the LDF was in for a shock. The United Democratic Front’s Adoor Prakash began maintaining a lead, from the early phases of counting. Till halfway of the process, the Left workers were confident of a turnaround, since the LDF had won six of the seven constituencies in the 2016 Assembly elections.
But, the fortunes reversed this time, with the UDF leading in six of the seven Assembly constituencies this time, with only Nedumangad giving Mr. Sampath a lead. Mr. Prakash triumphed with 3,80,995 votes, while Mr. Sampath, who came second, got 3,42,748 votes.
From anti-incumbency to anger among a section of the voters regarding the LDF’s stand on the Sabarimala issue to the debates on the pace of development in the constituency seem to have played its part in the shock result.
‘Expected win’
Mr. Prakash told the The Hindu at Indira Bhavan, later in the day, that the victory, which he had expected, was the result of the dedicated work put up by the UDF workers in the constituency.
For BJP’s Sobha Surendran, who ran an aggressive campaign raising Sabarimala as the prime issue, the result would come as a disappointment, with her turning up a distant third with 2,48,081 votes. But, it is still a huge improvement from the 90,528 votes that the party polled last time, increasing their vote share from around 10% to 24% this time.