PIRAVOM: Former Minister T M Jacob defeated his nearest rival M J Jacob by a margin of 147 votes. While T M Jacob got 66503 votes, M J Jacob won 66346 votes from a total of 132849 votes polled which includes postal votes.
Piravom, a UDF bastion in the district, is witnessing some changes in political leanings due to the development spree of M J Jacob. The UDF camp expected T M Jacob to garner more than 10,000 votes from the constituency. The UDF gained all the panchayats in the constituency in 2010 panchayat polls.
In the 2006 Assembly election T M Jacob was defeated by a margin of 5,150 votes by M J Jacob. The political situation at that time was not in favour of T M Jacob who had joined the DIC which stood against the Congress and UDF.
The DIC also joined hands with the LDF in the 2005 panachayat election and Jacob’s allegation against Oommen Chandy did not go well with the Congress.
When T M Jacob joined the UDF the Congress workers in Piravom were not willing to support him. During the Assembly elections a faction of the Congress was against T M Jacob and the Youth Congress burned T M Jacob in effigy.
Congress state leaders came to Piravom and tried to pacify the activists but in vain and this caused his defeat.
Though T M Jacob was interested in contesting from other constituencies for the Assembly polls especially from Muvattupuzha the UDF leaders were not willing to give him any another seat saying that T M Jacob had contested from Piravom for last three elections.
The LDF and UDF leaders agree that the development work done by M J Jacob had influenced many voters in his favour.
When the counting began in old Thiruvamkulam panchayat M J Jacob was in the lead and maintained it till the counting of Thirumarady panchayat. But when the counting began in Elanji panchayat T M Jacob was in the lead by a margin of more than 1,200 votes. Elanji is a UDF stronghold. T M Jacob gained 66,226 votes and M J Jacob gained 65,874 votes. Of the 749 postal votes T M Jacob won 277 and M J Jacob, 472.
The campaign of UDF state leaders also helped T M Jacob.
KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala had declared in the election convention that T M Jacob would be made minister if UDF comes to power. The UDF activists celebrated the victory by burning crackers and distributing sweets.