'It has turned out to be a humiliating defeat'

'I was very much aware of what was coming, but not to this extent.'
'If I had expressed what I felt, our campaign would have been in trouble.'

The United Democratic Front and the Congress suffered its worst defeat in recent times at the hands of the Left Democratic Front in the Kerala assembly election.

The Congress is now left with just 22 seats while the Indian Union Muslim League -- a part of the UDF won 18 seats.

Ramesh Chennithala, home minister in the Oommen Chandy government, reluctantly agreed to speak to Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com, but ended the interview abruptly.

Did the election results come as a rude shock to you?

Yes, indeed, the election results have come as a very rude shock to all of us. No doubt about that.

We never expected it to be so bad.

We thought it would be a close fight. But it has turned out to be a humiliating defeat for us.

One thing is clear: We will have to introspect on what has happened and then we will have to try to rectify the mistakes.

A proper analysis of the five years of rule and the mistakes we made that made the people so angry with us is necessary.

At any point during the election campaign did you get the impression that the people were going to reject you this way?

Towards the end of campaigning, I was aware that there was some problem, but then I could not express it to anyone.

I knew if I said what I felt, it would affect the party's morale.

When did you get the negative feelings? Was it after the Jisha rape and murder case?

Yes, after the incident, I started getting some bad vibes.

The last time I spoke to you about whether it would affect the UDF's prospects adversely, you said it would not...

How do you expect me to say that it would affect us adversely? Though I got the feeling, I kept it to myself.

I was not in a position to say it loudly while the campaigning was going on, especially when it was the last leg of campaign.

If I had expressed what I felt, our campaign would have been in trouble.

I was very much aware of what was coming, but not to this extent.

Do you think the scandals and corruption charges against the government played a major role in the defeat? All those ministers who had corruption charges against them were defeated...

I cannot say anything about the other reasons behind the defeat. One thing I can say: Our party has to sit down and introspect. We will come out of this like we had come out of so many other defeats. Now, our role is to play a constructive opposition.

It is too early to analyse all the reasons behind the defeat.

I cannot tell you anything more than this. Yes, the Jisha incident affected us badly.