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ELECTIONS '96

Congress improves tally in Kerala, but loses out on margins

The Congress-led United Democratic Front which wrested three seats from the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Democratic Front with case, has had to struggle hard to retain some of its traditional bastions in Kerala.

Party leader Mullappally Ramachandran, who has been winning the Kannur seat in north Kerala by a margin of over 25,000 votes since 1984, just managed to scrape through. He could manage only a 1,657 margin this time. Similarly, Professor P J Kurien, who had been holding the Mavelikkara seat ever since he won it in 1980 by a margin of 63,122 votes, had to content himself with a wafer thin margin of 1,261 votes.

For its part, the LDF has demanded recounting in both the constituencies.

In another instance, A C Jose, who was shifted to Mukundapuram, just managed to retain the seat (by a margin of 3,498 votes) which his predecessor had won by 24,757 votes in the 1996 poll. P C Chacko, who was shifted to contest from Idukki, found the going tough. He retained the seat by a margin of only 6,258 votes -- and this, when Jose had won it by 30,140 votes!

V M Sudheeran is the only Congressman who has been able to improve his previous margin (25,949 votes). He retained the Alappuzha seat by 40,113 votes this time.

The Congress partners like the Indian Union Muslim League and the Kerala Congress-Mani, however, have had comfortable gains in their traditional bastions. Both IUML party president G M Banatwala and candidate E Ahmed improved their previous tally in Manjeri and Ponnani respectively. Ahmed's tally went up from 54,971 votes in 1996 to 106,009 votes. Banatwala, who is winning the Ponnani seat for the seventh time in a row, amassed a margin of 104,342. Last time it was 79,295 votes.

The Kerala Congress-M's P C Thomas, who is winning for the fourth time in a row, has come close to his previous tally of 1.21 million votes. This time around, he has managed a margin of 113,809 votes.

The Congress, however, had an easy task in wresting the Ernakulam, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram seats from the LDF. Its George Eden even surpassed the margin of K V Thomas in 1991 while recapturing the Ernakulam seat by a margin of 74,508 votes. Thomas had won the seat in 1991 by 47,144 votes.

Little-known B Shankaran can take the pride in beating Janata Dal heavyweight and Union Minister M P Veerendra Kumar in his home turf Kozhikode by a convincing 18,276 margin. The JD nominee had won the seat in 1996 by a margin of 38,703 votes.

Star Congress candidate K Karunakaran, meanwhile, has accomplished his ambition of making a debut in the Lok Sabha. The senior Congress leader, who migrated to Thiruvananthapuram after his humiliating defeat in Thrissur in 1996, has managed to wrest the seat from the CPI by a margin of 15,013 votes.

Elections '98

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