THRISSUR: The Left Democratic Front (LDF) has made impressive gains in Thrissur district by winning 11 of the 14 seats here in the elections to the State Assembly.

The LDF managed to almost reverse the verdict of the last Assembly elections when it won only two of the 14 seats. Apart from retaining the two seats - Chelakkara and Cherpu - that it had won in the last elections, the LDF wrested nine seats from the United Democratic Front (UDF) in this election. The nine seats are Ollur, Kodakara, Manalur, Chalakudy, Mala, Kodungalloor, Guruvayur, Kunnamkulam and Wadakkancherry.

The Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran) (DIC-K) cut a sorry figure in the district with both its nominees suffering humiliating defeats. The party candidate T.V. Chandramohan lost to A.C. Moideen in Wadakkancherry with a margin of 20,821 votes, while in Kunnamkulam, party district president V. Balaram was defeated by Babu Palissery with a margin of 21,785 votes. The LDF scored the highest margins in these two segments in the district.

The DIC(K) rebel nominee Ashraf polled 11,438 votes in Mala, where the sitting MLA T.U. Radhakrishnan of the Congress was defeated by A.K. Chandran of the Communist Party of India (CPI) by a margin of 7,028 votes.

Sitting MLA Savithri Lakshmanan who was also a Karunakaran loyalist was defeated in Chalakudy by B.D. Devassy of the Communist Party of India(Marxist) (CPI-M) by a margin of 14,555 votes.

The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) lost Guruvayur to the CPI(M) nominee K.V. Abdul Khader.

Major setback

A major setback for the Congress in the district was the defeat of sitting MLA and the former Minister K.P. Viswanathan at Kodakara by a margin of 19,883 votes. C. Ravindranath of the CPI(M) who won from here was initially perceived as a weak candidate.

The grudge against outgoing MLA P.P. George and the controversies over candidate selection appear to have contributed significantly to the defeat of Leelamma Thomas of the Congress in Ollur, which has been a traditional UDF seat. The LDF had put up a young candidate, Rajaji Mathews of the CPI, here. He was elected by a margin of 7,969 votes.

CPI wrests Kodungalloor

K.P. Rajendran of the CPI wrested the party's traditional seat Kodungalloor from sitting MLA Umesh Challiyil of the JSS in a neck-and-neck contest.

Sunil Kumar of the CPI won from the party stronghold Cherpu, defeating the UDF candidate M.K. Kannan of the Communist Marxist Party (CMP) by a margin of 14,604 votes.

The former Minister K. Radhakrishnan of the CPI(M) retained the Chelakkara seat by defeating P.C. Manikandan of the Congress by a margin of 14,629 votes. Sitting MLA M.K. Paulson of the Congress was defeated in Manalur by Murali Perunelli of the CPI(M) by a margin of 7,720 votes. Assembly Speaker Therambil Ramakrishnan managed to retain Thrissur, with a reduced margin though. He polled 2,794 more votes than his nearest rival, M.M. Verghese of the CPI(M).

The convincing victories of sitting MLAs T.N. Prathapan of the Congress and Thomas Unniyadan of the Kerala Congress(M) in Nattika and Irinjalakuda brought some solace to the UDF camp.

While Mr. Prathapan defeated his nearest rival, Fatima Abdul Khader of the CPI, by a margin of 9,686 votes, Mr. Unniyadan defeated C.K. Chandran of the CPI(M) by a margin of 7,995 votes.

In the LDF, the CPI(M) won seven seats, while the CPI won four. The BJP's total vote tally from all the 14 Assembly segments in the district was 81,713 votes.

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