Wrong choice of candidates and cross voting by rival political parties in many divisions led to the defeat of some of the nominees of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Kozhikode Corporation Council polls held last month.
This is what the BJP district leadership, which took stock of the poor performance of the party in the civic body polls, felt.
The party nominees could win only seven seats in the 75-member council even after securing 22.82 % of the total votes.
At the same time, the vote share of the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the Kozhikode Corporation was 44.06 % and the Congress-led UDF, 31.79 %. The LDF and the UDF with their independent backed nominees, got 51 and 17 seats respectively.
The last time too, the BJP had emerged victorious in seven seats. But this time, the party lost four seats - Beypore, Beypore Port, Marad, and Civil Station divisions, to LDF candidates. However, it was able to retain Karaparamba, Cheverambalam, and Meenchanda, and captured the Puthiyara, Chakkorathukulam, East Hill and Athanikkal divisions.
The decision of the party to field former councillor Navya Haridas, who had won from Karaparamba, then reserved for women, again when the division was unreserved, not only helped the party win the seat but had a ripple effect on the neighbouring divisions of Chakkorathukulam, East Hill and Athanikkal, all won by the BJP this time. Ms. Haridas, who was credited with undertaking development programmes, won by a margin of 474 votes against her nearest rival.
Besides, the decision of the party to field C.S. Sathyabhama, who was Congress councillor during the 2010-2015 period, from Athanikkal, also paid off.
However, sources said that the decision to field former member E. Prasanth Kumar, from the Civil Station division, backfired. Also, a BJP member Jisha Gireesh had won from this reserved division for women in the 2015 polls. Had she been been a candidate, chances were that she would have retained the seat just like Ms. Haridas, they said.
Interestingly, the party candidate Saritha Parayeri won from the reserved Chevarmbalam division, from where Mr. Prasanth Kumar succeeded in 2015 polls.
Loss of three seats
The loss of three seats – Beypore, Beypore Port and Marad, were unexpected drubbings the party received in these polls. All adjoining seats were won by LDF, which the BJP leaders attribute to cross voting by SDPI and IUML workers in the divisions to defeat their candidates.
The last time Satheesh Kumar of the BJP had defeated the CPI(M) by 367 votes in Beypore port. This time, the party candidate Vindya Sunil lost by 399 votes. In the case of Marad and Beypore, the situation was no different.
In the last election, Anil Kumar ensured victory from Beypore but this time, Sreeja Anilkumar lost the seat. In Marad, BJP councillor Ponnathu Syma, who stood again now, lost the poll by 14 votes. The last time, she had won by a margin of 26 votes.
