Palakkad Constituency Result 2021: 'Metro Man' E Sreedharan loses to Congress, BJP loses lone seat in Kerala

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Kerala Assembly Election Results 2021 LIVE:  The BJP-NDA, which fought the April 2 assembly polls with the fancy claim of winning at least 35 seats in Kerala, on Sunday came a cropper as it failed to retain even its lone segment Nemom, even as all its major contestants, including 'Metroman' E Sreedharan and party state chief K Surendran fell by the wayside.

The saffron party's poll ride came to a grinding halt in the state as former Mizoram Governor Kummanam Rajasekharan, who was entrusted to retain Nemom in the state capital, failed to repeat the magic created by party veteran O Rajagopal there in 2016 assembly elections.

Ruling CPI(M) leader and LDF candidate V Sivankutty wrested the segment back by a margin of3,949 votes.

The success was also sweet revenge for Sivankutty this time as he had suffered an unexpected blow during the last assembly election when BJP opened its maiden account in Nemom.

Rajagopal had defeated Sivankutty by 8,671 votes during the 2016Assembly polls.

Retaining the seat was a matter of prestige for the saffron party as the ruling CPI(M) had left no stone unturned to deny them another chance in the 140-member assembly.

Barely a week before the election, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had said that the CPI(M) would close the BJP's first-ever account in the state this time.

'The BJP opened their first ever account in Kerala as a result of match-fixing with Indian National Congress.This time around, we will close their account, for sure,' Vijayan had said in a video shared on his twitter handle.

Besides losing the lone seat, the saffron party also failed to showcase a striking performance as expected in any of the constituencies, where it had high stakes like Palakkad, Malampuzha, Manjeswaram and Kazhakoottam.

Though 88-year-old Sreedharan maintained a steady lead in Palakkad right from the beginning, creating an impression that he would be able to deny young MLA, Shafi Parambil, the sitting seat, luck turned otherwise for the former technocrat and he lost by 3,859 votes.