R. SELVARAJ WON NEYYATINKARA BY-POLL-2012

R. SELVARAJ

 WON NEYYATINKARA BY-POLL

The Congress Friday,15^th June,2012, won the Neyattinkara by-election in Kerala, with the Congress' R. Selvaraj, who was trailing third as counting began stealing a march over his Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rivals. Selvaraj, a former CPM legislator who had resigned from the party to join the Congress, beat his nearest CPM candidate F. Lawerence by 6,334 votes.After raising hopes of a better and improved performance, the BJP candidate and former union minister O. Rajagopal trailed in the third position.According to the figures from the Election Commission, Selvaraj got 52,528 votes, Lawerence came second with 46,194 votes and Rajagopal was third with 30,507 votes.
"This was expected because we knew the pulse of the people towards our government. The CPM's wrong doings have been taken seriously by the people and have inflicted the defeat of their candidate," said state Congress president Ramesh Chennithala. This election was necessitated after Selvaraj, the sitting CPI-M legislator, quit citing differences of opinion with his party bosses and joined the Congress.

Selvaraj had earlier said that it would be better to commit suicide than join ranks with the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), but he got the Congress membership and later the ticket to contest the Neyattinkara constituency."This victory goes for the excellent performance of the Oommen Chandy government and people have given thumps up for it. People have given a fitting reply to the 'murder politics' of the CPM. If I had not become a member of the Congress party, I would have been eliminated by the CPM, similar to what happened to T.P. Chandrasekheran who was murdered May 4," said Selvaraj. With this, the Chandy government's tally has gone up to 73 seats, while the LDF (Left Democratic Front) tally went down by one to 67 as compared to 72 for UDF and 68 to LDF in the April 2011 assembly polls."Chandy's performance has been rewarded by the electorate," remarked Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha member Sashi Tharoor. A beaming Chandy was greeted by a huge crowd of party workers at the state Congress headquarters."This victory is a gift for us by the people for our one year in office. We won the Piravom by-election with an enhanced majority in March and here in Neyattinkara we have won it after losing the last two assembly elections in this constituency. It's sad that the CPI-M is not seeing the writing on the wall. Another reason for our victory is the real unity in our ranks," said Chandy.Putting up a brave face, former finance minister and senior CPM legislator Thomas Issac said that things turned to favour the UDF after the Onchiyam issue (murder of Chandrasekheran).

CPM veteran and opposition leader in the Kerala Assembly V.S. Achuthanandan and the CPI Friday blamed K.A.Mani's controversial speech for the drubbing the party received at Neyyattinkara bypoll.Stating that the speech by recently ousted Idukki district CPM secretary K.A. Mani in which he boasted of party prepearing a hitlist to do away with political opponents in Idukki may have influenced the bypoll outcome V.S. Achuthanandan said the UDF was successful in converting murder of T.P. Chandrasekhar into a campaign issue.UDF resorted to appeasement of communal forces and engaged in abuse of official power in Neyyattinkara, he alleged. VS said it was unfortunate that a person who had defected managed to win in Neyyattinkara and this does not augur well for democracy. There are also signs of casteist and communal forces gaining upperhand in Neyyattinkara, he said.KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala Friday said the verdict in Neyyattinkara is a response to the politics of murder followed by the CPM.He also opined that Selvaraj's victory is also a recognition for the good rule of the UDF-led state goverment.Selvaraj said his win shows that CPM, which follows murder politics has been ostracized by the people. He also alleged that M.Vijayakumar indulged in trading of votes in favour of the BJP.

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) candidate F. Lawerence was leading at the end of the first round counting by 1248 votes, according to the Election Commission website.'Athiyanoor local body is being counted first. The council has always been a traditional support base of the CPI-M. It is not surprising,' said State Planning Board member and senior UDF (United Democratic Front) leader C.P. John.What raised eyebrows was when BJP made a steady start. The party's candidate was former union minister O. Rajagopal.The Congress candidate R. Selvaraj, was a former CPI-M legislator. He had resigned from the party to join Congress.Counting of votes for Neyyattinkara began here on Friday at 8 am. The initial trends shows F Lawrence leading the race by 1248 votes followed by UDF's R Selvaraj. BJP's Rajagopal who was initially leading has been pushed to the third spot. Counting first began at the Athiyanur panchayat and has been completed in 43 booths out of the 144 booths. In the initial phase F Lawrence has got 13,978 votes followed closely by R Selvaraj with 12730 votes. O Rajagopal is in the third spot with 12050 votes. More than 80 percent of the 164,856 electorate exercised their franchise in the byelection to the Neyyattinkara Assembly Constituency.Counting began with police maintaining strict vigil at the counting centres. The first round of voting is going on and the final result will be out in about 2 hours. Postal votes The constituency has total of 1,64,856 voters, in which 84,832 are women, 79,161 men and 863 service voters.F. Lawrence of the Left Democratic Front, R. Selvaraj of the United Democratic Front and O. Rajagopal of the Bharatiya Janata Party are locked in a triangular fight. T.R. Thankarajan of the Republican Party of India and E.V. Philip of the Socialist Party (India) too have their names on the electronic voting machines, apart from the five Independent candidates.

Prof. John Kurakar