KOLLAM: The BJP has won two seats for the first time in Kollam Corporation, where the SDPI also opened its account. The RSP and Kerala Congress (B) suffered a drubbing while the SNDP-BJP tie-up flopped.
BJP’s Kokila S. Kumar defeated Geetha Viswan of CPM by a margin of 226 votes, pushing RSP’s Kusumam Teacher to a third in Thevally while Thuvanatt V. Suresh Kumar defeated LDF’s Thadathivila Radhakrishnan by 734 votes in Thirumullavaram.
Thevally, formerly Thrikkadavoor panchayat, was held by RSP and fragmentation of its traditional vote base after switching sides appears to have helped BJP. Congress candidate Boby came third in Thirumullavaram.
SDPI candidate A. Nizzar scraped through by seven votes in a tight fight with the BJP in Chathinamkulam, RSP's sitting seat.
He bagged 1,484 votes against 1477 cornered by BJP’s Lalithabai Amma. CPIM’s G.S. Arun Kumar got 984 votes while RSP landed in fourth place. The BJP-SNDP blamed the CPM ‘vote trading’ for her defeat.
The LDF, which won all the municipalities in the district, could not benefit from its association with Balakrishna Pillai’s KC (B) that contested eight seats in Kottarakkara municipality and lost six of them.
The RSP could not even perform well in its strongholds. RSP leader N.K. Premachandran MP said the LDF had a misconception that the SNDP-BJP could dent only UDF support base, which had been proven wrong.
“The lack of unity within the Congress while distributing seats has helped the LDF,” he said. CPM leader K.N. Balagopal MP said the victory of CPM over the RSP was popular ire against RSP’s “political betrayal”.
LDF bagged 725 of 1234 grama panchayat seats leaving 373 to UDF, 81 to BJP and 55 independents and others.
It won 118 block divisions against UDF’s 33 while others won one seat out of 152. In district panchayat, LDF won 22 out of 26 divisions leaving just four to UDF while it bagged 72 of 131 municipal seats against UDF’s 50, BJP’s five and four others.
In the 55 divisions of Kollam Corporation, LDF won 35 seats against 16 of UDF and two each by BJP and others.
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