KOCHI: KM Manu, an independent contested in television symbol secured 2544 votes in Ernakulam constituency, where the LDF independent Manu Roy lost to UDF's T J Vinodh for a margin of 3750 votes. Adding to LDF's woes, NOTA received 1297 votes and together this would come 3841 votes.
Further, KM Manu's name was in the seventh position in the voting machine whereas the LDF independent candidate Manu Roy's name was one notch below at the eighth position.
This too created confusion among the Left voters. Besides, the power supply was disrupted in many booths following the heavy rain, which also may have led to some Left votes going to the namesake candidate.
Meanwhile, the namesake candidate for T J Viondh, Vinod AP garnered only 205 votes.
This is not the first time that a namesake candidate is spoiling the winning chance of an official party candidate. In the 2011 Assembly elections, CPM leader C P John lost Kunnamkulam seat by a margin of 481 votes while a namesake candidate P V John garnered 860 votes.
Similarly, in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, senior Congress leader V M Sudheeran lost to CPM’s KS Manoj by 1,009 votes, while his namesake VS Sudheeran polled 8,281 votes. In the 2009 LS elections, CPM’s PA Mohamed Riyas lost to UDF’s MK Raghavan in Kozhikode by a margin of 838 votes after three namesake candidates - K Mohammed Riyas, P Mohammed Riyas and PA Mohammad Riyas - managed to carve out a total of 4,000 votes.