SDPI’s rising clout pulled down LDF in elections

SDPI’s claim that they had supported Congress-led UDF in Lok Sabha polls has strong validity if one analyses the result in constituencies where the party decided not to field their candidates and sup
Representational image.
Representational image.

KOCHI: SDPI’s claim that they had supported Congress-led UDF in Lok Sabha polls has strong validity if one analyses the result in constituencies where the party decided not to field their candidates and support the UDF. 

The SDPI votes plummeted to just SDPI’s claim that they had supported Congress-led UDF in Lok Sabha polls has strong validity if one analyses the result in constituencies where the party decided not to field their candidates and support the UDF.  80,000 votes this time from 2.73 lakh votes secured in 2014 indicating that the party has transferred all votes in favour of the UDF candidates in Kasaragod, Pathanamthitta, Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Idukki, Kottayam and Thrissur.

SDPI Kerala state president Abdul Majeed Faizi has also announced that their party cadre supported the UDF candidates. The SDPI decided to support UDF after its relationship turned sore with the CPM leadership which came down heavily on the SDPI for its alleged terrorist activities.

The SDPI, which contested only in 10 seats in 2019 elections, has come fourth in five constituencies. In Malappuram, they secured 19,106 votes followed by 18,124 in Ponnani, 8,142 in  Kannur, 5,544 in Vadakara and 5,426 in Wayanad. An analysis of the 2014 election results shows that the SDPI had secured 2.73 lakh votes with majority of the votes from Kasaragod (9,713), Pathanamthitta (11,353), Kollam (12,812), Idukki (10,401) and Thrissur (6,894).

This election, the SDPI leadership chose not to field candidates in these constituencies and the UDF managed to come out with a thumping victory in Kasaragod, Idukki and Thrissur which were sitting seats of the CPM, most importantly Kasaragod constituency which was held by LDF for the last 30 years. In fact, the relation between SDPI and the CPM worsened in 2018 when Students Federation of India (SFI) leader Abhimanyu of Maharaja’s College was allegedly murdered by SDPI workers on the college campus on July 1.

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