CHENGANNUR: The performance of the LDF in the panchayats of the constituency is encouraging to the Left Front. In all panchayats and Chengannur Municipality, the LDF gained more votes than the UDF.
Saji Cheriyan’s relation with the constituency gave an edge to the excellent performance of the front. Cheriyan maintained a clear margin from the first round of counting.
The counting started with the opening of the EVMs of the 14 booths of the Mannar panchayat. And the LDF gained 2,768 votes more than the UDF candidate here. The panchayat is ruled by the UDF.
Venmony panchayat is the home village of BJP candidate P S Sreedharan Pillai and is also ruled by the UDF, but it gave a clear margin with 3,046 votes to the LDF. The UDF panchayats of Ala (1,180), Pandanad (649) and Chengannur municipality (621) gave a majority to the LDF.
In Thiruvanvandoor panchayat, the BJP is the single largest party and it ruled here till 2016. It also gave an upper hand to LDF with 618 votes. Mulakkuzha gave the highest vote margin to Cheriyan with 3,875 votes.
The defeat of the UDF in the Chengannur byelection has affected not only the prospects of its candidate D Vijayakumar and of the Congress party, it is also affected the prospects of Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala. That the number of votes has diminished in the home panchayat of Chennithala will be a matter of discussion in the coming days.
In Chennithala panchayat, the LDF garnered 2,403 votes more than the UDF. He has also faced debacle in booth 130 at Thripperumthura in which Chennithala cast his vote. The LDF gained 170 votes more than the UDF candidate in this polling station.