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Piravom polls: UDF govt gets a breather

UDF nominee Anoop Jacob won the by-election by defeating M J Jacob of opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) by 12,070 votes. Anoop, who belongs to the Kerala Congress (Jacob), bagged 82,756 votes against 70,686 votes secured by his nearest Communist Party of India (Marxist) rival. Bharatiya Janata Party candidate, K.R. Rajagopal ended up a distant third with 3241 votes.

The election was necessitated by the death of civil supplies minister T M Jacob, who had won the seat in the last election by a wafer thin margin of 157 votes. Anoop, his son, has recorded a convincing victory by establishing clear lead in 10 out of 12 village panchayats in the Assembly segment.

He will take oath as Member of the Legislative Assembly on Thursday and as minister in the Oommen Chandy cabinet in place of his late father shortly thereafter.

Considered as the traditional stronghold of the UDF, Piravom had stood always with the UDF, except in 1987 and 2006. Though in 2006, M J Jacob had wrested the seat from T M Jacob with over 5,000 votes, in 2011, he lost the seat to the latter with a slender margin of 157 votes.

With the victory, the strength of the UDF in the 140-member Assembly has gone up to 72 seats. This may also help the UDF to elect two members from the state to the Rajya Sabha and strengthen the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre.

The Congress has attributed the victory to an endorsement of the performance of the 10-month-old government and the unity in the ruling front. Senior leaders of the party said that the victory will help the Chandy government to go ahead with its welfare and development measures with a renewed vigour. The CPM termed the win as a victory of ‘communal forces’. Party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan alleged rampant misuse of official machinery and money power behind the UDF victory. The opposition front had entered the fray declaring the election as a referendum on the government.

When the LDF leaders propagated that the by-election would be a Waterloo for the UDF government, Chandy himself had accepted the challenge and admitted that the poll would not only be test of the performance of his government but also the activities of the opposition.

news@khalejtimes.com