United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate Uma Thomas has romped home in the Thrikkakara Assembly byelection as she has swept past her nearest rival Jo Joseph of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) by a record margin of 25,016 votes.
While Ms. Thomas bagged 53.76% of the polled votes, Mr. Joseph came a distant second with 35.28% as they secured 72,770 votes and 47,754 votes respectively when the votes of the bypoll held on May 31 were counted on Friday. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) A.N. Radhakrishan bagged 12,957 votes with a measly vote share of 9.57%.
Though a traditionally UDF bastion, Thrikkakara was perceived as a tight contest in the wake of the campaign blitzkrieg by the LDF, which was eventually blown away in what turned out to be a wave in favour of the UDF.
For a political novice fighting her maiden electoral battle, largely on the popularity of her late husband and former Congress legislator from Thrikkakara P.T. Thomas, it turned out to be a dream debut for Ms. Thomas as she stormed past the previous best victory margin of 22,406 votes polled by UDF candidate Benny Behanan in the first election held in the newly formed constituency in 2011. Her husband had won the constituency by 14,329 votes in the Assembly election last year amidst a State-wide LDF sweep.
In fact, so emphatic has been her victory that the LDF may find it tough to explain the rout despite having deployed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his entire Cabinet on the campaign trail for what was trumpeted as the inevitable march to ‘century’ from the 99 seats it now held in the Assembly.
Ms. Thomas wrested the lead from the very first round as votes from the 21 booths in Edappally were counted as she notched up an impressive lead of 2,249 votes. She never let it slip till the final round.
The lead posted a steady trajectory as it rose to 4,116 votes, 6,487 votes, 8,928 votes, and 9,386 votes in the four successive rounds thereafter when votes in the Corporation area were counted. Her lead touched the five-figure mark with 12,065 votes in the sixth round followed by 14,903 votes and 18,703 votes in the two successive rounds thereafter.
Prospects of a record margin loomed large when the lead surged to 20,872 votes in the ninth round and it was breached in the next round with 22,914 votes. She set a new record with 24,264 votes in the penultimate round only to better it in the final round.
So dominant was Ms. Thomas that in all except four rounds she got at least 2,000 votes more than Mr. Joseph. Only in the fifth round when the two were separated by just 458 votes did Mr. Joseph put up some fight. In that round covering booths from the Vytilla and Ponnurunni areas, Ms. Thomas bagged 5,221 votes to Mr. Joseph’s 4,763 votes. In fact, out of the 239 polling booths, the LDF managed a lead in just 22 booths.
