THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In Malappuram Lok Sabha by-election, the UDF and BJP hope for great strides. While the UDF is only concerned about the margin of victory of their candidate P. K. Kunhalikutty, the BJP claims their vote share would cross a lakh for the first time.During the 2014 Lok Sabha election, IUML's the late E. Ahmed’s winning margin was a whopping 1. 94 lakh votes despite opposition to his candidature from the Youth League leaders. Though this time Kunhalikutty’s choice came as a surprise to many, he had to sweat it out to increase the victory margin. Malappuram DCC president V. V. Prakash who was the UDF’s election campaign committee chairman told DC that the final polling percentage would come to 71. 21 to 73 percent.
“We are expecting Kunhalikutty’s victory margin to cross the two lakh mark,” he said. “Since this has been a by-election, the UDF could coordinate its campaign in an excellent manner. During the initial stages, there were some issues between the IUML and Congress as in places like Kondotty and Vazhakkad during the panchayat elections which had been settled.” The outcome will be known on Monday. KPCC leadership meeting on Wednesday would evaluate the results and discuss organisational elections. Meanwhile, BJP State president Kummanam Rajasekharan told DC that if there were no polling agents in some booths in Malappuram during the 2014 elections, this time it has not happened. He exuded confidence to improve the performance of BJP candidate, N. Sreeprakash.
“We are confident of improving the previous voting percentage of BJP of 7.58 percent (64,705 votes) in Malappuram. This time the co-ordinated work between the BJP and the RSS has been exemplary which we believe could turn it to our advantage,” he said. However, Sreeprakash’s earlier claim that he would ensure “halal beef” to his voters in Malappuram if they elected him had not gone down well with the Hindu voters. A BJP general secretary told DC that since there was only 27 percent Hindu voters in Malappuram, those crucial voters might act against the interest of the BJP’s due to the controversial comments. At the same time, another BJP general secretary K. Surendran came out with yet another controversial comment that BJP will not allow cow slaughter in Kerala.
