Palakkad bypoll: Congress retains seat, widens lead over BJP
Congress retained the Palakkad Assembly seat in the bypoll, with the party’s youth wing’s Kerala chief Rahul Mamkootathil defeating BJP's C. Krishnakumar by 18,840 votes. The victory also marked an increased margin for Congress compared to previous elections in the constituency.
According to the Election Commission, Mamkootathil garnered 58,389 votes, Krishnakumar received 39,549, and CPI(M)-backed independent candidate P. Sarin, who defected from Congress to join the Left camp before the polls, managed 37,293 votes, finishing third.
Palakkad, considered the BJP's most favorable constituency in Kerala due to its Hindu-majority electorate (over 70%), saw the saffron party relegated to second place yet again. The party had finished as the runner-up in the last two Assembly elections as well, failing to dislodge Congress despite its efforts.
Krishnakumar was leading after the first round of counting. However, by the seventh round, Mamkootathil overtook him with a 1,425-vote margin, which only grew as the counting progressed.
This bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of then Congress MLA Shafi Parambil, who vacated the seat after winning the Vadakara Lok Sabha.
Mamkootathil's win is particularly significant as he not only retained the seat for the Congress but also improved the party's margin over the BJP compared to previous years.
In the 2016 Assembly election, Shafi Parambil had defeated BJP’s Sobha Surendran by 17,483 votes, while in 2021, Shafi narrowly bested BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate E. Sreedharan with a reduced margin of 3,000 votes.
Mamkootathil's 2024 performance surpassed both, reaffirming Congress’s dominance in Palakkad.
The CPI(M)-backed candidate P. Sarin, who switched allegiances from Congress to the Left, failed to make a significant impact, finishing third. His defection and subsequent loss highlight the challenges faced by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in a constituency where it has struggled to compete against Congress.
In other notable bypolls across Kerala, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra claimed a resounding victory in the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat with over four lakh votes, defeating CPI candidate Sathyan Mokeri. Meanwhile, the LDF retained the Chelakkara Assembly seat, with U.R. Pradeep winning after K. Radhakrishnan vacated it to represent Alathur in Parliament.
