Chennai: A left bastion since 1996, the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF)’s U.R. Pradeep won the Chelakkara assembly seat in the Kerala bypolls after polling 64,827 votes.
Congress’s Ramya Haridas secured 52,626 votes and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s K. Balakrishnan polled 33,609 votes.
The bypoll in Chelakkara, a reserved constituency in Thrissur district, was necessitated after K. Radhakrishnan—sitting MLA and former minister for Welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes, Devaswoms & Parliamentary Affairs—vacated the seat post winning from the Alathur Lok Sabha seat.
A senior CPI(M) leader and popular face of the party in Kerala, Radhakrishnan had represented Chelakkara from 1996 till 2016 and was re-elected in 2021.
Facing the anti-incumbency heat, the ruling LDF fielded Radhakrishnan from the Alathur LS seat, which includes the Chelakkara assembly segment, to ensure victory. Of the 20 seats the LDF contested in the 2024 LS polls, Alathur was the only one it won.
To retain its bastion, the LDF has campaigned intensely, with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan participating in seven party events in the seat in the run-up to the polls to highlight the schemes implemented by his government in the last eight years.
Meanwhile, Congress’ Haridas has highlighted the lack of development in the constituency under the CPI(M)’s regime.
According to analysts, Pradeep is the party’s best candidate in the constituency. He represented the constituency from 2016 to 2021. “The Congress’s machinery focused much on Palakkad elections and didn’t campaign much in Chelakkara,” K.P. Sethunath, a state-based political analyst and former journalist, told ThePrint.
He added that Haridas had created a negative image due to her poor performance as former Alathur MP. She represented the seat from 2019 to 2024. Fielded again in 2024, she lost to Radhakrishnan by a margin of 20,111 votes.
(Edited by Radifah Kabir)
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