BJP Cuts Into Left Votes In Kerala By-Election, Congress Wins

NEW DELHI: By- elections are not a final statement but certainly an indication of trends. More so, if Assembly elections in a state are not too far away, and the main political parties have campaigned hard to project these as a referendum of sorts on their performance at the state, and even national levels.

Of the three by- elections in Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala the last was by far the most significant. In that the Bharatiya Janata party finally registered an official and substantial presence in the Aruvikkara by-election leading to the defeat of the CPI(M) at the hands of the Congress party. The BJP divided the anti-incumbency votes that helped the Congress candidate win the seat comfortably with a margin of over 10,000 votes when the party was at best expecting a very narrow win.

Congress candidate KS Shabarinathan got 56,448 votes, M Vijayakumar of the Left, got 46,320 votes and BJP’s O Rajagopal got 34,145 votes.

Significantly, the BJP that had got just 7688 votes in the last elections increased the tally by over 26000 votes, just short of the Left candidate by just over 12,000 votes. The Congress vote share percentage fell, but it won with a convincing margin because of the split in the anti-votes.

Aruvikkara was a Congress held seat, but the CPI(M) had campaigned hard on the anti-corruption plank. The LDF was looking at a possible victory here to boost its campaign against the ruling Congress led government on corruption and non-governance. However, despite getting the bulk of liberal and Dalit votes it was unable to defeat the Congress candidate, and instead now has to cope with the visible rise of the BJP in this constituency, and perhaps even in Kerala as reports seem to suggest.

The Congress victory, however, gives a shot in the arm to the state Chief Minister Oomen Chandy who has been facing considerable dissidence in Kerala from within the party. His supporters are already clear about projecting this victory to ensure that he continues to lead the party in the state elections due later next year.

Altogether six by-elections were held for RK Nagar in Tamil Nadu, Aruvikkara in Kerala, Garoth in Madhya Pradesh, Pratapgarh and Surma in Tripura and Chokpot in Meghalaya.

RK Nagar, predictably, brought AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa back with a thumping majority. Despite the corruption cases against her she got an overwhelming mandate. She defeated her nearest CPI candidate Mahendran, by over 1.5 lakh votes.

The BJP held on to its seat in Madhya Pradesh with clearly the Delhi preoccupation with Lalit Modi and corruption charges against the Chief Minister not cutting ice with the voters in Garoth. The party’s Chander Singh Sisodia defeated Congress candidate Subhash Sajotiya by nearly 14,000 votes.The seat had been vacated by the BJP legislator Rajesh Yadav who died in March. This victory is being taken as a vindication by state Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan, who is currently facing major charges about the involvement of senior party leaders and government officials in a scam where hired imposters took the examinations for entrance to educational institutions as well as government jobs. The charges have turned far more serious since the death of 25 witnesses in different instances since 2010. Just a day ago Minister Babulal Gaur got the Opposition demanding resignations by declaring that natural causes were to blame for these mysterious deaths.

All in all the status quo was held, with the voters casting the ballot in favour of the parties they had voted for in the last elections as well from the respective constituencies.