Thriuvananthapuram: In what has come as a huge relief for the Congress-led UDF in Kerala, its candidate KS Sabarinath has won the Aruvikkara bypoll, Tuesday.
Sabarinath won with a margin of 10,128 votes over his nearest LDF candidate M Vijaykumar. BJP's O Rajagopal finished third.
Sabarinath garnered 56,448 votes, LDF's Vijaykumar got 46,320 votes. BJP's O Rajagopal, though finished third, got a respectable 34,145 votes.
The UDF candidate lead the following panchayats – Tholicode, Vithura, Aryanad, Uzhamalaykal, Vellanad, Poovachal, Kuttichal. LDF candidate lead only in Aruvikkara panchayat.
The bypoll was necessitated following the death of former Speaker G Karthikeyan, who represented the segment (previously known as Aryanad), in the state assembly from 1991-2015. Sabarinath is Karthikeyan's son.
In his first remarks post victory, Sabarinath said that the victory is of the good work done by his father and that he will work to ensure development in the area.
The Aruvikkara victory has come as a shot in the arm for Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who had declared that the poll outcome would be a referendum on the government's performance in the past four years.
Also, the LDF has been a lot of questions over the way forward as the opposition appears to have failed to convince the public over over various corruption allegations, including solar and bar bribery scams.
The bypoll result will surely impact the panchayat polls, to be held later this year, and assembly polls next year.
The bypoll had seen a record turnout with an estimated 76.31 per cent voters having excercised their franchise.
The total electorate in the constituency is 1,84,210 of which 97,533 are women.
