Sarin increases votes in Palakkad, Pradeep retains Chelakkara; no anti-government sentiment, says CPM

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The results of the Lok Sabha elections held six months ago gave the CPM an indication of strong anti-incumbency sentiment. When the results of the by-elections in the three constituencies were announced today, it is not a reason for the CPM to rejoice, but is a relief. In spite of the drop in voting percentage, Dr P Sarin, a left independent candidate, increased his vote in Palakkad constituency, which helps to save face even though Palakkad is third. Along with that, the party was able to retain Chelakkara, which was described as a political fight. In Wayanad, Sathyan Mokeri's votes have decreased significantly.

Palakkad
The vote share of Palakkad is a relief for the CPM. In 2021, Sarin managed to collect 37,293 votes, an increase of 815 votes, even as the polling percentage declined, where party candidate C P Pramod polled 36,433 votes. Sarin has also managed to get more votes than politburo member A Vijayaraghavan got in the Lok Sabha elections held just before. If it was 13,787 votes behind the second-placed BJP in 2021, this time it was reduced to just 2,256 votes, which is an achievement for the CPM.

Chelakkara
Chelakkara has a history of winning only Left candidates since 1996. No matter what elections are there, other candidates do not get the votes that K Radhakrishnan gets. Chelakkara's Radhettan (K Radhakrishnan) had a majority of 39,400 votes in the 2021 assembly elections, with 83,415 votes. However, this time the CPM got 64,259 votes. U R Pradeep got a majority of 12201 votes. When Radhakrishnan contested from Alathur in the Lok Sabha elections, he got an upper hand of just 5,000 votes from Chelakkara. Although Pradeep has improved his majority of 10,200 votes in 2016, his total votes have declined. 3512 votes less than in 2016. The party has lost 19,156 votes compared to 2021.

Wayanad
Wayanad, which gave Priyanka Gandhi a huge majority, saw a significant drop in left votes. Sathyan Mokeri was unable to reach the figure of 2,83,023 achieved by Annie Raja, while recording a drop in polling of around 8%. The CPI candidate managed to get only 2,09,906 votes. Nearly two lakh votes are less for Sathyan Mokeri than Priyanka's majority. Priyanka won from Wayanad with 4,08,036 votes, surpassing the majority of 3,64,422 votes secured by Rahul Gandhi in 2024. This is the second largest majority in the history of Kerala. The biggest majority in 2019 was 4,31,770 won by Rahul Gandhi.