The Hindu Business Line : LDF makes a clean sweep — Double blow for Karunakaran camp

RED RESURGENCE: Kerala was bathed in red on Thursday, with the CPI(M)-led LDF making a clean sweep of the Lok Sabha elections in the State. - H. Vibhu

Thiruvananthapuram , May 13

THE ruling United Democratic Front in Kerala, led by the Congress, suffered a rout in the elections to the Lok Sabha, the results of which were announced on Thursday.

The misery of the UDF camp was complete with the defeat of Mr K. Muraleedharan, son of veteran Congress leader Mr K. Karunakaran, who was recently inducted into the State Cabinet as Electricity Minister, in the bypoll to the Assembly from Wadakkancherry.

Of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in the State, the CPM-led Left Democratic Front rode to victory in 18, while the remaining two seats were shared by IUML, a UDF partner, and NDA. Interestingly, this is the first time that NDA has tasted a significant electoral victory in the State.

NDA opened its account in the State through Mr. P.C. Thomas, Union Minister of State for Law and leader of Indian Federal Democratic Party (IFDP). He retained the Muvattupuzha seat with a wafer-thin margin of 529 votes. In the process, he relegated Mr Jose K. Mani, son of the Revenue Minister, Mr K.M. Mani, to the third position.

For Congress, which witnessed fierce factional wrangling that was conveniently put in the backburner just before the run-up to the elections, it was a total washout with all its candidates in the 17 constituencies it contested biting the dust.

The all-consuming anti-UDF mood of the electorate also saw to it that Indian Muslim Union League, a major partner in the Government, lose its erstwhile stronghold of Manjeri to LDF. A consolation for IUML came with the victory of Mr E. Ahammed from Ponnani, its other stronghold.

For Mr Karunakaran, whose running rivalry with the Chief Minister, Mr A.K. Antony, is well chronicled, it was a double blow with his daughter, Ms Padmaja Venugopal, losing the battle for the Mukundappuram seat by a margin of more than one lakh votes.

With Mr Karunkaran himself a Rajya Sabha member, the fielding of both his son and daughter in the electoral fray, apparently at his insistence, had generated heated political debate in the State.

Another notable casualty on the UDF side is Mr V.M. Sudheeran, who was ousted from the Alappuzha constituency, which he had been representing for quite a few successive terms. He lost to Mr K.S. Manoj of LDF by a narrow margin of 1,006 votes.

In Thiruvananthapuram, veteran CPI leader and former Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Vasudevan Nair, won a keenly fought three-cornered contest. He defeated the sitting MP, Mr V.S. Sivakumar of the Congress, and Mr O. Rajagopal of BJP.

For the record, BJP had pinned much hope on Mr Rajagopal, who is the Union Minister of State for Defence. The silver ray for BJP is that though Mr Rajagopal finished third, he had substantially built on the number of votes he polled last time.

In the outgoing Lok Sabha, UDF originally had 11 seats and LDF 9. However, it lost Mr Thomas, who crossed over to NDA after forming IFDP. Later, it lost the Ernakulam seat to LDF where Dr Sebastian Paul won in a by-poll six months ago following the death of the sitting Congress MP. Incidentally, Dr Paul has retained the seat in this round also.

A shock treatment: CM

The Chief Minister, Mr A.K. Antony, has termed the rout of the UDF in the Lok Sabha elections as a "shock treatment" to the Front.

He told newspersons here on Thursday, immediately after all the results came in, that he was not ready for a "post-mortem" of what had happened. He, however, said that he fully accepted the verdict of the people.

The Chief Minister said he was not prepared to run away from the reality of the defeat. The UDF should learn lesson from it, he added.

He added that the Congress and the UDF would examine why the front had been handed out such a harsh verdict and discuss the future course of action.