Congress-led UDF looks to repeat its 2019 LS poll performance in Kerala

PTI, Mar 17, 2024, 11:17 AM IST

The Congress-led UDF, which won 19 of the 20 seats in Kerala in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, is looking to repeat the performance in the 2024 polls by retaining the same candidates with a few changes, while the Left front and the BJP have carried out a major overhaul of their nominee list.

The Congress has fielded all its sitting MPs, except T N Prathapan who won from Thrissur last time, and added two new names to the list — current Palakkad MLA Shafi Parambil from Vatakara and AICC general secretary in-charge of organisation and Rajya Sabha member K C Venugopal from Alappuzha.

Parambil is being fielded from Vatakara after the party decided that its sitting MP from there, K Muraleedharan, will contest from Thrissur in the wake of his sister Padmaja Venugopal joining the BJP.

The BJP has fielded two union ministers — V Muraleedharan (Attingal) and Rajiv Chandrasekhar (Thiruvananthapuram) — and Anil K Antony (Pathanamthitta), son of Congress stalwart A K Antony while retaining actor Suresh Gopi in Thrissur.

The ruling LDF too brought changes in its candidates line-up by fielding political heavyweights like former state Finance Minister Thomas Isaac (Pathanamthitta) and Rajya Sabha member Elamaram Kareem (Kozhikode).

The region-wise performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections is as follows 1. Northern region In Kasaragod constituency, Congress’ Rajmohan Unnithan polled 4,74,961 votes out of the total 11,00,051 votes cast there with CPI(M)’s K P Sathishchandran came in second with 4,34,523 votes.

BJP’s Ravisha Thanthri Kuntar got 16 per cent of the total votes.

In Kannur, K Sudhakaran (Cong) won by securing 5,26,755 of the total 10,65 619 votes cast there, and CPI(M)’s P K Sreemathi came in second with 4,35,182.

In Vatakara, Congress leader K Muraleedharan with 5,26,755 votes out of the total 10,65,619 and CPI(M)’s P Jayarajan came second by polling 4,42,092 votes.

In Wayanad, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, won with a huge margin by getting 7,06,367 votes out of a total of 10,92,197 with his closest rival — CPI’s P P Suneer receiving only 2,74,597 votes.

In Kozhikode, Congress candidate M K Raghavan polled 4,93,444 out of a total 10,76,193 votes to come first, while CPI(M)’s A pradeep Kumar came second with 4,08,219 votes.

BJP’s Prakash Babu got 14.97 per cent of the total votes.

Malappuram — IUML’s P K Kunhalikutty won by polling 5,89,873 out of the total 10,34,618 votes with CPI(M)’s V P Sanu coming in second with 3,29,720 votes.

Later, Kunhalikutty resigned from the Lok Sabha to contest in the state assembly elections in 2021.

Subsequently, a by-election was held in Malappuram in 2021 and IUML’s Abdussamad Samadani won by getting 5,38,248 votes out of a total of 11,02,537 and Sanu, who got 4,23,633 votes, was again defeated.

Ponnani — IUML’s E T Mohammed Basheer won with 5,21,824 votes out of the total 10,17,265 and Left candidate P V Anvar came second with 3,28,551 votes.

BJP candidate Rema got 10.87 per cent of the total votes.

Palakkad — Congress candidate V K Sreekandan won with 3,99,274 votes out of the total 10,28,249 and CPI(M)’s M B Rajesh came a close second with 3,87,637.

BJP’s Krishnakumar C got 21.24 per cent of the total votes.

Alathur — Congress candidate Ramya Haridas won with 5,33,815 out of the total 10,18,743 and CPI(M)’s P K Biju came second with 3,74,847.

2. Central Kerala region Thrissur — Congress’ T N Prathapan won by polling 4,15,089 votes out of the total 10,41,869 with CPI’s Rajaji Mathew Thomas coming second with 3,21,456 and BJP’s Suresh Gopi coming third with 2,93,822 votes.

Chalakudy — Benny Behanan (Cong) won with 4,73,444 votes out of the total of 9,90,224 and veteran actor and CPI(M)’s late Innocent came second with 3,41,170 votes.

BJP’s A N Radhakrishnan got 15.56 per cent of the total votes.

Ernakulam — Congress’ Hibi Eden won with 4,91,263 votes out of the total 9,67,203 and CPI(M)’s P Rajeev came second with 3,22,110 votes.

BJP’s Alphons Kannanthanam got 14.24 per cent of the total votes.

Idukki — Congress’ Dean Kuriakose won by polling 4,98,493 votes out of the total of 9,19,297 and Joice George, an independent candidate, came second with 3,27,440 votes.

Kottayam — Thomas Chazhikadan of the Kerala Congress(M), then a UDF ally, won with 4,21,046 votes out of the total of 9,10,339 and CPI(M)’s V N Vasavan came second with 3,14,787. However, the seat fell into the LDF kitty later after Kerala Congress(M) joined the Left front.

Alappuzha — The only seat where the LDF won last time with CPI(M)’s A M Ariff polling 4,45,970 out of the total 10,88,728 votes with Congress’ Shanimol Osman coming a close second with 4,35,496 votes.

BJP’s Dr K S Radhakrishnan polled 17.22 per cent of the total votes.

3. South Kerala region Mavelikkara — Congress’ Kodikunnil Suresh won by polling 4,40,415 out of the total of 9,71,035 votes and CPI’s Chittayam Gopakumar came second with 3,79,277 votes.

Pathanamthitta — Congress’ Anto Antony came first by getting 3,80,927 out of the total 10,26,553 with CPI(M)’s Veena George coming second by polling 3,36,684 votes and BJP’s K Surendran third with 2,97,396 votes.

Kollam — UDF ally Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) fielded N K Premachandran who won with 4,99,677 votes out of the total 9,68,123 and CPI(M)’s K N Balagopal got 3,50,821 votes.

BJP’s K V Sabu got 10.66 per cent of the total votes.

Attingal — Adoor Prakash of Congress won with 3,80,995 votes out of the total of 10,04,888. CPI(M)’s Dr A Sampath and BJP’s Sobha Surendran came second and third with 3,42,748 and 2,48,081 votes, respectively.

Sobha Surendran will contest from Alappuzha in 2024.

Thiruvananthapuram — Congress’s Shashi Tharoor won for a third consecutive time by getting 4,16,131 out of the total 10,10,180 votes and defeated BJP’s Kummanam Rajasekharan and CPI’s C Divakaran, who came second and third, respectively.

Rajasekharan polled 3,16,142 votes while Divakaran got 2,58,556 votes.

Kasaragod, Kozhikode, Ponnani, Palakkad, Thrissur, Chalakudy, Ernakulam, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kollam, Attingal and Thiruvananthapuram were the LS constituencies in which the BJP got a vote percentage in double digits in 2019.