CPIM suffered a big blow from rebel leaders in the elections. 3 out of 5 rebels who fought with the support of UDF won strong seats like Payyannur, Taliparamba and Ambalapuzha on issues of corruption and nepotism, dashing LDF’s hopes.
Thiruvananthapuram: For the first half hour after the counting of postal ballots started, the LDF camp was confident of returning to power by winning 71 seats. But as soon as the results started coming in, from Manjeshwaram to Parasala, the party’s forts started falling one by one. Five leaders who left the party just before the elections and contested with the support of UDF posed a double challenge to CPIM. Of these, three won, one rebel was completely rejected by the public, while one gave a tough fight. V. Kunhikrishnan in Payyannur, T.K. in Taliparamba. Govindan and G in Ambalapuzha. Sudhakaran registered a spectacular victory. Whereas in Kottarakkara, Ayesha Potti gave a tough fight, while in Ottapalam, P.K. Sasi had to face a heavy defeat.
Payyannur: Corruption charges sink the boat
V. Kunhikrishnan had created a sensation just before the elections by alleging scam in the Martyr Family Assistance Fund of CPIM worker Dhanraj, who was killed in Payyannur. He asked the sitting MLA T.I. Madhusudanan was accused of this. He made this big revelation in an interview to Vinu V. John, Senior Executive Editor on Asianet News. When the CPIM district leadership refused to give accounts of donations, party workers in red bastions like Payyannur turned against themselves. Even when Kunhikrishnan became the candidate with the support of UDF, the CPIM leadership was believing that victory was certain, only the margin might be slightly less. But in the results, V. Kunhikrishnan won by a margin of 7,487 votes. This was the same seat where CPIM had won by 40,000 votes.
Taliparamba: Familyism became the reason for rebellion
The announcement of CPIM candidate in Taliparamba prompted T.K. Made Govindan angry. CPIM state secretary M.V. Govindan’s wife P.K. He termed the decision to make Shyamala a candidate as undemocratic. Despite strong opposition in the Mandal Committee meeting, the party did not change its decision, after which he left the party and announced to contest the elections. The UDF supported him, which made the contest tough. Even then CPIM was hopeful that they would save the seat by 3000 votes. But till the counting of 13 out of 16 rounds was completed, T.K. Govindan had a lead of more than 13,000 votes.
Ambalapuzha: ‘Guru’ taught a lesson
Yes. Sudhakaran was not only a senior leader of CPIM, but he was also a ‘teacher’ who took classes for party leaders and workers. His main allegation was that citing his age, he was sidelined and sent home. Even when he started participating in Congress programs, the CPIM leadership did not take it seriously. It was only when he did not renew the party membership just before the elections that the leadership realized the danger. Many efforts were made to convince him, but Mr. Sudhakaran did not agree. He wanted to make the existing party leaders realize his ground hold in Alappuzha. Here also UDF supported him. CPIM was still confident of victory, but the results showed that the public rejected the sitting MLA H. Salam. Sudhakaran once again reached the assembly with a huge margin of 23,814 votes.
Somewhere missed, somewhere close to home
The mathematics of UDF was written by P.K. This was proven wrong in the case of Sasi, who was also removed from primary membership by the CPIM. UDF thought that they would win through Sasi in Ottapalam, the CPIM stronghold, but it did not happen. The workers stood with the official candidate of the party and advocate K. Premkumar won by a huge margin of 26,777 votes.
Whereas in Kottarakkara, Ayesha Potti complained that she was not given due respect. She had been away from public life, but made a comeback as a UDF candidate in this election. He met former Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal was given a tough fight and Balagopal could win only by a slight margin of 1,072 votes.