The defeat of the United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate Ramya Haridas who had been elected to the 17th Lok Sabha from Alathur with a margin of 1.59 lakh votes in 2019 by Minister for Welfare of SC/ST and Backward Classes K. Radhakrishnan, has led to controversy where Congress leadership disowned responsibility for the same.
On April 26, Ms. Ramya lost to Minister for Welfare of SC/ST and Backward Classes K. Radhakrishnan by 20,111 votes in an election held following her winning by a landslide margin of over one lakh fifty-nine thousand votes as far back as just last year.
This was in an election that was drowned by the UDF but Mr. Radhakrishnan became Kerala’s sole Left Democratic Front (LDF) winner.
Nonetheless, when LDF voting trends were very much against them in the State, Ms. Haridas’ loss was even harder on the UDF. The District Congress Committee (DCC) president A.Thankappan distanced the party leadership from it all indicating that she had become a victim of her own success.
According to Mr. Thankappan this arrogant attitude towards senior leaders’ advice caused her downfall. Gopinathan said during his arrest that he could not have stopped the UDF wining Alathur because he is a Congress dissident leader himself.
Vote Share Decrease
Ms. Haridas’ vote share reduced from 52.4% to 38.63% within five years due to what was believed to be her performance and presence as an MP in Alathur constituency district congress committee for these years. Lastly, she only had about three lakhs eighty-three thousands sixty six voters unlike before when she had up five hundred thirty three thousand votes. The difference between overall number of votes cast and total number of valid votes was huge, but the margin of Mr. Radhakrishnan’s victory was only 20,111 votes.
In Alathur, there was a significant increase both in NOTA and BJP votes. In 2019, NOTA votes were 7,722 while this time they went up to 12,033 indicating that this is what Alathur voters thought of Ms. Ramya’ performance.
BJP candidate T.N. Sarasu got nearly one lakh more than the NDA candidate received in the previous election. Also the NDA candidate T.V. Babu had secured about eight nine thousand (8.82%) votes as at 2019. Ms. Sarasu raised BJP vote share to one lakh eighty eight thousand (18.97%) this time.The UDF leadership thinks that Ms. Sarasu has been successful in eating into a sizeable chunk of UDF votes in Alathur.
However, Ms.Haridas rejected accusations leveled against her by senior leaders that she failed to heed their advice. She suggested all grievances be taken up within party structures rather than being aired through media.
Congress dissident Mr.Gopinathan said the DCC lost Alathur. He warned against blaming candidates for mistakes made collectively when he commented on his arrest by police officers.
