Congress's Uma Thomas, who won the Thrikkakara assembly bye-poll recently by a historic margin of 25,016 votes, on Wednesday took oath as an MLA of UDF in the state assembly. Uma Thomas, widow of late Congress MLA from Thrikkakara P T Thomas, took oath in the chamber of Speaker M B Rajesh as the Assembly is not in session presently. The death of P T Thomas in December last year had necessitated the bye-election for the vacant assembly seat in May.
The oath was taken in the presence of senior Congress leaders, including Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan, former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala.
Uma Thomas' massive victory in the bye-election was a morale booster for the Congress-led UDF and a huge setback for the CPI(M)-led LDF.
With the win, she became the lone woman legislator of the Congress party in the state Assembly.
Uma won a total of 72,770 votes and managed to maintain a steady lead in all the 12 rounds of counting since the beginning, while her nearest rival and Left candidate Jo Joseph, got 47,754 votes and BJP candidate A N Radhakrishnan garnered 12,957 votes.
"I dedicate this victory to PT Thomas and am extremely thankful to each and every Congress worker who helped me in my campaign and above all to all the people in my constituency," Uma had said earlier.
Uma's late husband PT Thomas won the April 2021 Thrikkakara Assembly polls with a margin of close to 14,500 votes, but she registered the highest ever victory margin surpassing the 22,406 votes which Congress candidate Benny Behanan had got in 2011, when the constituency was first established.