In what can be termed as a cause of concern for the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala, the vote share of the ruling front witnessed a considerable dip in the recently concluded bye-polls in the Puthuppally assembly constituency. When the results of the polls were declared on Friday, September 8, the vote share of the LDF candidate Jaick C Thomas, was recorded at 32.49% as compared to 41.22% polled by him during the 2021 assembly polls.
In 2021, Jaick was up against Congress leader and former Kerala CM Oommen Chandy, who had managed to scrape through with a margin of just over 9,000 votes.
The number of votes secured by Jaick in the bye-elections was even lesser than what he secured in 2016, when he contested for the first time. This time around, he got only 42,425 votes. Chandy Oommen, Oommen Chandyś son who contested for United Democratic Front, replacing his father, secured 61.38% vote share, polling 80,144 votes. This is the third time Jaick contested from Puthuppally constituency, from where he suffered a defeat all the three times.
During the 2011 assembly polls, which saw Oommen Chandy winning from the same constituency to become the Kerala CM, the Congress leader secured 69,922 votes as opposed to LDF candidate Suja Susan George, who secured 36,667 votes.
BJP also had a dip in vote share this time considering previous elections. In 2021 BJP´s N Hari had secured a vote share of 5.71 %, but in the byelections Lijin Lal got 5.02%. In 2016 BJPś George Kurien who had 15993 votes had a share of 11.93%.