While exit polls had predicted some big-ticket losses for the UDF, it seems that the results are even more devastating for the ruling alliance. As many as four former ministers and the former speaker and deputy speaker of the Assembly are losing in their constituencies.
K Babu, the scam-tainted former excise minister, who contested from Tripunithura, was trailing behind M Swaraj of the LDF by 2,772 votes at 12.08 pm, according to the website of the Kerala Election Department. Reacting to the emerging results, he said, it was because the Congress lost the support of many voters belonging to minority communities.
PK Jayalakshmi, the Minister for Scheduled Tribes Welfare, was trailing in Mananthavadi by 1307 votes to OR Kelu of the LDF. Jayalakshmi had been the lone woman minister in the outgoing Oommen Chandy government.
In Kuthuparamba, KP Mohanan was trailing the LDF candidate KK Shylaja Teacher by 12,291 votes. KP Mohanan, the son of former Minister PR Kurup, was himself the minister of agriculture in the Chandy government.
Labour minister Shibu Baby John is set to lose in the Chavara constituency.
Other big-ticket losses for the UDF were also the speaker, N Shaktan from the Kattakkada constituency, and Palod Ravi, the deputy speaker, from the Nedumangad constituency in Thiruvananthapuram.
Even after this electoral slap in the face, however, outgoing Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said that giving tickets to tainted ministers had not ruined the chances of the UDF.