THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: DF’s Adoor Prakash broke the coalition’s 30-year jinx as he wrested Attingal constituency from LDF’s A Sampath with a margin of 38,247 votes.
The last time the UDF won the constituency was in 1989 when Thalekunnil Basheer floored CPM’s Susheela Gopalan. Prakash polled 3,80,995 votes, while Sampath had to be content with 3,42,748 votes. NDA’s Shobha Surendran did make her presence felt as she garnered 2,48,081 votes, a sizeable increase from what the party’s candidate had polled last time (Girijakumari S had won a little above 90,000 votes).
The defeat came as a shock for Sampath, the sitting MP, who had earlier won thrice from here, the last two being in a trot. From the onset itself, Prakash maintained a steady lead and went ahead with his juggernaut which the LDF candidate failed to check.
Out of the seven Assembly constituencies, Prakash had a clear lead in all sans Nedumangadu which swayed in favour of the Left candidate with a slender lead of 759 votes.
In 2014, Sampath had a convincing lead in all the seven Assembly segments against UDF’s Bindu Krishna. This time, the UDF wave was clearly palpable from the voting pattern in the Assembly segments. Ironically, six out of the seven Assembly seats are currently being held by the LDF.
Prakash said his campaign touching upon the lack of developmental activities in the constituency struck a chord with the voters.