Palakkad bypoll: After high-octane campaign, all three fronts claim victory

Palakkad, Nov 19 (IANS) A day after the high voltage campaign for bypolls to Kerala's Palakkad Assembly seat ended, the three political fronts -- LDF, NDA and UDF -- on Tuesday claimed that victory will be theirs on November 23 when the votes are counted.

Incidentally, Palakkad is one of the very few Assembly constituencies among the 140 in the state, where the BJP finished second in the 2021 polls. The by-election campaign witnessed aggression from each side to outdo each other.

The election was forced upon the electorate after sitting Congress legislator Shafi Parambil contested the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency where he won after trouncing one of CPI(M)’s most popular faces, sitting legislator and former Health Minister K.K. Shailaja.

All three political fronts -- Left Democratic Front (LDF), National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and United Democratic Front (UDF) -- witnessed internal bickering over the candidate selection.

Of the blocks first was the Congress party which decided to field their popular face and Youth Congress president Rahul Mamkootathil, who is not from the district and soon came expression of displeasure from a few sections. The Congress lost its leader Dr P. Sarin who walked into the CPI(M) camp and was instantly fielded as the Left Independent candidate.

Things were no different in the BJP too. After a round of discussions and debate, much against the wishes of a section, the BJP decided to field a local leader and a familiar face during election time, Krishnakumar.

When the campaign entered the final round, came a shocker for the BJP after its popular face, Sandeep Warrier joined the Congress.

While Parambil won a tight poll battle against Metroman E.Sreedharan with a slender margin of less than 4,000 votes in the last Assembly elections, all three candidates have predicted that they are going to win the seat with a margin of five digits.

However, irrespective of who wins, the result is going to be a game-changer for the three political fronts. The campaign in Palakkad will go down as one of the most keenly fought by-elections in the history of Kerala.

Polling will start at 7 a.m. and will continue till 6 p.m. Ten candidates are in the fray with a total electorate of 1,94,706 who can vote in the 184 polling booths.