Malappuram: The United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate fielded by the Indian Union Muslim League, K.N.A Khader, emerged victorious in the Vengara assembly by-election on Sunday defeating his nearest rival P.P Basheer of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) by a margin of 23,310 votes. Mr Khader secured 65,227 the 1, 22,610 votes polled while Mr Basheer of the CPM came second with 41, 916 votes. The SDPI candidate K.C Naseer finished third with 8,648 votes pushing the BJP’s K. Janachandran to a fourth with just 5,728 votes.
IUML rebel candidate Hamza Karumannil got only 442 votes while another independent, Sreenivas, got 159 votes - both below NOTA'a 502.
The UDF’s victory margin is the lowest in the history of Vengara which is one of the fortresses of the IUML in the district. The party has got a blow in the forced by-poll despite the win with a well-positioned majority while the LDF improved its vote share in a big way. A considerable number of votes eroded from the UDF’s hold. Mr Khader could not maintain his predecessor P.K Kunhalikutty’s majority of 38,237 in 2016. The IUML’s 2016 vote share of 72,181 has also decreased to 65,227. Besides this, 14,927 votes have been lost from its previous majority while the LDF made strides adding more than 7,000 votes.
All the dominant front were confident of better performance after the constituency witnessed the highest of voter turnout on Wednesday’s polling which was 72.12 percent. Mr Kunhalikutty, the IUML's national general secretary, said the UDF’s victory was one of the biggest by an opposition party in by-elections held in the state. “We could fetch such a big majority amidst LDF’s high decibel electioneering using all party and government machinery,” he said. The result and causes of the decrease in the majority will also be discussed at UDF meeting slated to be held on Wednesday in Kozhikode.
