Kerala

Congress-led UDF wins by over 10,000 votes in Aruvikkara

Written by : TNM

 The results to the Aruvikkara constituency in Kerala was announced on Tuesday with United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate KA Sabarinadhan winning by a margin of 10128 votes. The results will come as a huge sigh of relief for Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy who had openly declared that a vote for the UDF candidate would be a vote for his government. While Sabarinadhan got 56448 votes, M Vijayakumar, his CPI(M) rival, could muster 46320 votes and BJP’s O Rajagopal got 34145 votes. The BJP has got considerably high number of votes this year as compared to last.  The counting of votes began at 8 am and Sabarinathan had taken a lead in the first round itself which predicted his victory.  Sabarinathan has maintained almost the same number of votes secured by his father and former speaker late G Karthikeyan from the Aruvikkara consituency.  In Saturday's polls, 77.35% of the electorate had cast their votes. The assembly constituency witnessed a triangular contest between the CPI(M), the Congress and the BJP.  The election was necessitated after the then assembly speaker G Karthikeyan died in March. He had represented the constituency for 24 long years. Sabarinathan, 31, is his son.  There were a total of 16 candidates in the fray and 1,84,210 voters - up from 1,64,884 in 2011 when Karthikeyan won by over 10,000 votes and which saw a 70% turnout.  The ruling Congress fielded Sabarinathan, while the Communist Party of India-Marxist nominated 67-year-old former speaker and minister M Vijayakumar.  The Bharatiya Janata Party put up its regular warhorse O Rajagopal, 85. While Sabarinathan and Rajagopal kept a tab on the counting process from their homes, Vijayakumar was spotted at the counting centre in the capital city. 

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