CPI-M retains Chelakkara Assembly seat

Thrissur, Kerala: With a margin of 12,067 votes, CPI-M candidate U.R. Pradeep retained the seat in the Chelakkara assembly constituency, giving Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan cause for celebration on Saturday.

The by-election was necessitated as sitting MLA and state SC/ST Minister K.Radhakrishnan vacated it after winning the Alathur Lok Sabha election by defeating sitting Congress MP Ramya Haridas.

Pradeep is a popular face in the constituency as he represented it during 2016-21 before moving out for Radhakrishnan in 2021.

The Congress brought in Haridas who they felt was a popular face in the constituency as it comes under the Alathur Lok Sabha constituency.

Even though the Congress top brass was expecting a win for Haridas with a slender margin, things did not go the way they expected as Pradeep led right from the start when counting began.

It was only in the 11th round of counting that Haridas led, whereas she was trailing in all the other rounds, but fell back again.

Reacting to the defeat, veteran Congress leader K. Muraleedharan said the party will seriously look into what went wrong at Chelakkara. "It must be recalled that when the CPI-M-led Left won just 40 seats out of the 140 in the Kerala Assembly in 2001, they were able to retain Chelakkara. So for the CPI-M, Chelakkara has been their seat, but there exists a strong anti-incumbency factor in the constituency," he said.

However, the margin of victory that Radhakrishnan got in 2021m which was close to 40,000 votes has slipped to 12,000 votes, but the only saving grace is Pradeep managed to get around 7,000 votes more than what Radhakrishnan polled from Chelakkara during the April 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

But leaving aside statistics, Vijayan can certainly breathe easy as Pradeep has won the seat as he had campaigned for the candidate on a few occasions.

On his part, Pradeep said: "We had no doubt about the outcome and I had told you (media) every time that you met me, that we would win easy and it has happened."

Though the BJP finished a distant third, they too have a reason for cheer as they managed to get the highest votes in all the elections with their candidate K. Balakrishnan securing over 33,000 votes.

With inputs from IANS