UDF’s Uma Thomas registers thrashing victory in Thrikkakkara bypolls by 25,015 votes

 

Kochi: UDF candidate Uma Thomas retained the Thrikkakara assembly constituency in the state legislative assembly with a whopping majority of 25,015 votes in the byelection held in Ernakulam. She surpassed the record set by MP Benny Behanan during the 2011 assembly elections.

Uma gained a clear lead from the start, and crossed 14,329 votes lead set by her husband late PT Thomas in 2021 assembly elections. LDF could only bag the same votes it garnered last time despite experiments in the candidature and an all-out campaign led by none other than the CM Pinarayi Vijayan himself. Out of the total 239 booths, LDF could gain a lead in only 12. NDA failed to improve its kitty as they recorded a loss of at least 2,000 votes compared to 2011.

Ernakulam DCC said that the result is a major setback for Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. CPM said that the poll was not an assessment of the state government. Uma Thomas dedicated the victory to her late husband and former MLA PT Thomas, and thanked Thrikkakara residents.

Meanwhile CPIM accepted people’s verdict and said that the results were unexpected. ‘CPM was not expecting a failure in Thrikkakara elections. The problem was not with selection of candidate. We had identified the issues of the Thrikkakara residents and operated accordingly. Unfortunately, the mandate is not going in our favour. We shall examine the reason for the loss’,CPM District Secretary CN Mohanan said.

Formed in 2011, Thrikkakara has elected only Congress MLAs so far. The constituency had witnessed 68.77% polling. The total number of votes were 1,35,279. The constituency, which was formed in 2011, had elected senior Congress leader Benny Behanan as its first MLA. In the 2016 assembly election, P T Thomas secured 61,268 votes, which was 45.42 per cent of the electorate, while CPM’s Sebastian Paul bagged 49,455 votes. That year, BJP’s S Saji secured 21,247 votes. While many expected the turnout to be the highest ever since the constituency came into being in 2011, when the polling ended it turned out to be the lowest ever with 68.77%. District Collector Jafer Malik had visited the counting station to oversee the arrangements on Thursday.