THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: All the nine women leaders fielded by the Congress have tasted defeat. Apart from Minister P. K. Jayalakshmi, who was defeated in Mananthavadi, the others are former AICC secretary Shanimol Usman (Ottapalam), KPCC secretary Mariamma Cherian (Ranni), KPCC vice-president Laly Vincent (Alappuzha), Mahila Congress Palakkad district secretary C. Sangeetha (Shornur), State Women’s Commission member K. A. Thulasi (Chelakkara), KPCC general secretary Padmaja Venugopal (Thrissur), Kasargod DCC general secretary and also Mahila Congress district secretary Dhanya Suresh (Kanhangad) and Youth Congress Kannur Lok Sabha constituency general secretary Amritha Ramakrishnan (Kalliassery).
Mahila Congress state president Bindu Krishna told DC that there would not be a Congress woman MLA in the Assembly for the second time in its history. “When LDF got 100 seats in 2006, there was no woman Congress MLA. Jayalakshmi could not defend her sitting seat while Padmaja failed in Thrissur, a Congress stronghold, which was taken by the CPI,” said Bindu Krishna.
P. Unni of CPM defeated Shanimol Usman by 16, 088 votes in Ottapalam. She had faced local issues as KPCC general secretary Santha Jayaram was fielded there initially. CPM’s Raju Abraham, who has become a four-time MLA, defeated Mariamma Cherian, wife of late Ranni MLA, M. C. Cherian, by 14,596 votes. Laly Vincent was trounced by CPM’s sitting Alappuzha MLA Dr. T. M. Thomas Isaac by 31, 032 votes.
P. K. Sasi of CPM romped home defeating Sangeetha in Shornur by 24,547 votes. CPM’s U. R. Pradeep defeated Thulasi by 10,200 votes in Chelakkara. Padmaja tasted defeat at the hands of CPI’s V. S. Sunilkumar by 6,987 votes.
CPI’s E. Chandrasekharan defeated Dhanya Suresh by 26,011 votes in Kanhangad. T. V. Rajesh of CPM defeated Amritha Ramakrishnan, daughter of the late former Congress minister N. Ramakrishnan by 42,891 votes in Kalliassery.
