THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:In a historic victory, the Communist Party of India (M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) retained power in Kerala by winning 99 seats against 41 seats of Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in the Assembly polls.
In the 140-member Kerala Assembly, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led the National Democratic Front (NDA) failed to hold on to the single-seat it won of Nemom in Thiruvananthapuram in 2016 and drew a blank this time.
In LDF, CPI (M) led from the front winning 68 seats, including the independent candidates backed by the party. The closest ally CPI won 17 seats, while the new entrant to the Left fold, Kerala Congress (M) managed to win 5 seats out of the 12 seats it contested. Janata Dal (Secular) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won 2 seats each, and the Loktantrik Janta Dal (LJD) won just one seat out of three seats it contested. Kerala Congress (B) retained its sitting seat, while Indian National League (INL) and Congress (Secular) won one seat each.
The main opposition Congress was able to win just 21 seats out of the 91 seats it contested. The UDF partner Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) also put a dismal performance winning just 15 seats out of the 27 seats it contested. When Kerala Congress won 2 seats, the Kerala Congress (Jacob), the National Secular Conference and the Revolutionary Marxist Party of India (RMP) won one seat each.
When the left under Pinarayi Vijayan routed the Opposition both Congress and BJP suffered a huge setback. In the BJP, senior leaders like Kummanam Rajasekharan, state president K Surendran who contested from two seats, Sobha Surendran and Metroman E Sreedharan faced defeats.
In the 2016 Assembly polls, LDF had won 91 seats, with a vote share of 43.48 per cent, while the UDF had won 47 seats, with a vote share of 38.81 per cent. Meanwhile, the NDA won one seat with a vote share of 14.96 per cent.
Source: ANI
