Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) general secretary P.K. Kunhalikutty registered an emphatic victory in the Lok Sabha byelection held in Malappuram last Wednesday. Mr. Kunhalikutty defeated Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate M.B. Faisal by a creditable margin of 171,023 votes.
When Mr. Kunhalikutty secured 55.04% (515,330) of the 9.36 lakh votes polled, Mr. Faisal got 36.77% (344,307) votes. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had ballyhooed the Malappuram byelection in an unprecedented fashion, secured only 7.01% (65,675) votes for its candidate N. Sreeprakash.
Although there were six other Independent candidates in the fray, together they polled only 5,924 votes. As many as 4,098 votes were polled for NOTA (none of the above). Mr. Kunhalikutty remained ahead throughout the counting of votes which began at 8 a.m. on Monday at Government College, Malappuram. His lead soared as counting progressed, prompting United Democratic Front (UDF) workers to unleash their victory celebrations as early as 8.30 a.m. When the final results were declared towards midday, enthusiastic activists wearing green shirts and headbands had occupied the roads and streets here, waving huge flags of the IUML and the Congress. Mr. Kunhalikutty too joined the jubilation soon. Lifting him in the air, they shouted their allegiance and support for him.
Describing the victory as a grand one, Mr. Kunhalikutty said that it was the triumph of a political stand. He rubbished the allegations levelled by his rival candidates that the UDF victory was the result of communal grouping and polarisation.
The Malappuram byelection was brought about by the death of IUML president E. Ahamed on February 1, after he collapsed in Parliament on the eve of the Budget day. Ahamed had been elected from Malappuram by a record margin of 1.94 lakh votes in 2014. Mr. Kunhalikutty, the strongman of the IUML in Kerala, too pulled off an impressive victory by securing a lead of 1.71 lakh votes.
Ahamed had polled 51.27% of the votes when he secured a lead of 1.94 lakh votes. But Mr. Kunhalikutty improved the UDF position in Malappuram by securing 55.04% votes, the best ever achievement by a UDF Lok Sabha candidate since the constituency was formed in 2008. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the UDF had polled 54.8% votes in Malappuram.
