Date:12/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/12/stories/2006051224090300.htm

Kerala - Kochi

Impressive gains for LDF in district

Renu Ramanath

Seven UDF MLAs suffer defeat; CPI(M) candidate wins in Aluva

KOCHI: Ernakulam district, a traditional stronghold of the United Democratic Front (UDF), showed a clear swing towards the Left Democratic Front right from the beginning of counting of votes for the Assembly elections on Wednesday morning.

The counting started at 8 a.m. with the postal ballots being taken up first before the votes polled in the electronic voting machines. Within an hour, the lead positions were announced, with the LDF leading in nine out of the 14 Assembly constituencies.

The first result to be declared in the district was from Mattancherry, where Industries Minister V.K. Ebrahim Kunju of the Indian Union Muslim League defeated CPI(M)'s M.C. Josephine. Mr. Kunju scored the highest victory margin (15,532 votes) in the district. The result was announced by 9.30 a.m. and immediately after that the results of Thripunithura and Ernakulam constituencies were declared. By 10 a.m., the results of Palluruthy and Perumbavoor also were declared.

Babu Paul of the CPI, who defeated the sitting MLA Johny Nellore in Muvattupuzha, got the second highest margin (13,225). T.U. Kuruvila of the LDF, who defeated sitting MLA V.J. Paulose in Kothamangalam, has the lowest margin (1,814) of victory.

N.K. Purushothaman and M.M. Monayi, LDF candidates in Njarakkal and Kunnathunadu respectively, also have comparatively narrow margins. While Mr. Purushothaman defeated his UDF rival P.V. Sreenijan by 2,631 votes, Mr. Monayi defeated Congress leader P.P. Thankachan by 2,057 votes. Mr. Thankachan, the only UDF candidate got defeated in the district last time (Saju Paul defeated him in Perumbavoor), repeated his debacle in Kunnathunadu this time.

The results from Aluva were the last to come. The counting remained very slow in Aluva where the UDF had a marginal majority in the early rounds.

However, soon afterwards, the lead position changed and LDF candidate A.M. Yousef started to gain a narrow margin over his rival K. Mohammedali, the sitting MLA . Mr. Yousef finally increased his lead by 6,094.

The fall of the former Minister and sitting MLA T.M. Jacob at Piravom was evident from the very beginning of the counting. M.J. Jacob of the CPI(M) defeated him by a margin of 5,150 votes. Saju Paul, who was the LDF's lone face-saver in the last polls, increased his margin to 12,673 from 1,188. He defeated Shanimol Usman of the Congress at Perumbavoor.

Seven of the UDF's sitting MLAs from the district were defeated this time - P.J. Joy, M.A. Chandrasekharan, Dominic Presentation, K. Mohammedali, T.M. Jacob, V.J. Paulose and Johny Nellore. Only four of the UDF's sitting MLAs managed to win this time.K.V. Thomas, who had a margin of 11,844 in the last polls, had to content with the margin of 5,800 votes this time in Ernakulam. K. Babu, who had defeated CPI(M)'s K. Chandran Pillai by a whopping margin of 24,296 votes last time, could garner only 7,342 votes' lead this time in Thripunithura. V.D. Satheesan who maintained a steady lead won from Paravur with a margin on 7,792 votes. Mr. Erbahim Kunju alone had managed to improve his margin, from 12,153 to 15,532.