Both the Left Democratic Front and the United Democratic Fronts retained their Assembly seats in Kasaragod on Sunday.
While the LDF won the Kanhangad, Thrikkaripur, and Uduma constituencies, the UDF retained the Kasaragod and Manjeswaram seats.
However, there were anxious moments for the LDF when Balakrishnan Periya, contesting for the UDF, was in the lead of more than 4,000 votes in the Uduma constituency from the beginning of the counting.
It was expected that the UDF might pose a strong challenge to the LDF in the wake of the the Periya twin murder case and other factors. However, by the end of the 10th round of counting, the LDF shifted the gears and took the lead against the UDF and retained the seat.
In another two LDF strongholds of Thrikkaripur and Kanhangad, the sitting MLAs M. Rajagopalan and Revenue Minister E. Chandrasekharan, who were leading from the beginning of the counting, won the election with comfortable margins.
The BJP had a total wash-out in the district. It had high hopes of winning a seat, especially in Manjeshwaram, where party president K. Surendran contested again for the third time.
However, he lost the election to the UDF candidate A.K.M. Ashraf, who defeated him by a margin of 745 votes. Mr. Surendran had lost the previous elections with a narrow margin of 89 votes in the 2016 election to the UDF candidate P.B. Abdul Razak.
Meanwhile, in Kasaragod constituency, N.A. Nellikkunu continued his winning streak for the third consecutive time. He defeated the BJP district president K. Shreekanth.
