Sons of two former chief ministers were among five political heirs who were humbled in the Assembly polls in Kerala while six relatives of politicians, who contested the three phase Assembly elections in the state, emerged victorious.
K Muraleedharan, son of veteran leader K Karunakaran, and leader of Democratic Indira Congress, suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of P T A Rahim, an LDF supported independent candidate from Koduvally, while Dr M K Muneer, a minister in the outgoing Oommen Chandy Cabinet and son of former chief minister C H Mohammed Koya, was defeated from Mankada.
Actor-turned-politician K B Ganesh Kumar, son of Kerala Congress (B) leader, R Balakrishna Pillai, retained his Pathanapuram seat while M V Shremyamskumar of the Janata Dal(S), son of JD(S) leader M P Veerendra Kumar, defeated former minister K K Ramachandran from Kalpetta in his electoral debut.
For Muraleedharan, electoral battles are not new. But this is the first election he faced after the formation of his Democratic Indira Congress-K, which was carved out by splitting the Congress.
Muraleedharan has represented Kozhikode in the Parliament twice. But his attempt to step into the Assembly had been thwarted once earlier when he unsuccessfully contested from Wadakancherry in the 2004 bypoll.
Muneer, PWD minister in the Congress-led UDF government, had represented Malappuram in the Assembly in 1996 and 2001. He was shifted to Mankada this time which proved unlucky for him and he was defeated by Manjalam Kuzhiali (LDF-IND).
