Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress has retained the Ernakulam Assembly seat in Kerala with its candidate T.J. Vinod narrowly defeating his nearest rival — CPI-M backed Independent candidate Manu Roy — by less than 4,000 votes, poll officials said on Thursday.
Though Ernakulam has been a Congress stronghold for a while now, the margin of victory for its candidate fell to 4,000 this time from the previous 21,000.
“I dedicate this victory to my voters. The margin has to do with the heavy rains on the polling day,” said Vinod.
Heavy downpour on polling day on Monday led to just 57.90 per cent turnout.
CPIM wrest Vatiyoorkavu, Konni
CPI-M candidate and Thiruvananthapuram Mayor V.K. Prasanth on Thursday won the prestigious Vatiyoorkavu Assembly constituency in Kerala by a margin of 14,251 votes, poll officials said.
“The victory has been possible due to the work of the Pinarayi Vijayan government and what really mattered here was the candidate,” said Prasanth.
The bypoll to the Vatiyoorkavu constituency was necessitated after incumbent legislator K. Muraleedharan, son of late former Congress Chief Minister K. Karunakaran, vacated the seat after he won the Vadakara Lok Sabha seat earlier in 2019.
The BJP, which finished in second place in Vatiyoorkavu in the last two polls, was pushed to third place, while the Congress came second.
The CPI-M also wrested the Konni assembly constituency in Kerala from the Congress party, which held it for the last 23 years, as party candidate K.U. Jenish emerged victorious with a margin of 9,953 votes, poll officials said.
Congress candidate P. Mohanraj came second and senior BJP leader K. Surendran finished third.
The seat was vacated by former Congress minister Adoor Prakash after he won the Attingal Lok Sabha polls.
Prakash has won every election from Konni since 1996.
