Congress candidate Chandy Oommen wins Kerala's Puthuppally constituency in bypoll after defeating Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate Jaick C Thomas by 37,719 votes. While the former CM's son received 80,144 votes, CPM's Jaick C Thomas and BJP's Ligin Lal secured the second and third positions with 42,425 and 6,558 votes respectively.
Chandy Oommen (37), currently chairman of the Youth Congress's national outreach cell, could well surpass his father's record of margin of 33,255 votes in the constituency, which the late Congress leader represented Puthuppally in the state Assembly for over five decades.
The bypoll is being seen as politically significant as the Congress aims to retain its traditional stronghold while the ruling CPI (M) wants to make new inroads by clinching it, as the bypoll comes a few months ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The voting for the seat, left vacant by the demise of Oommen Chandy, was held on September 5.
While the ruling LDF claiming to have pushed development in the state and the Congress-led UDF largely banking on the sympathy wave over its late leader's demise, the BJP was seen contending that the development in the southern state and the Assembly constituency was thanks to the efforts of the policies of the Narendra Modi-led central government.
The bypoll result, which came a few months ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, is seen as a huge setback for the ruling CPI(M), which has been facing allegations of corruption and nepotism from the Opposition Congress-led UDF and the BJP.
Reacting to win, Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said, "The spectacular victory in the Puthuppally by-elections is a clear message to the Modi and Pinarayi Vijayan governments. Both BJP and CPM have been thrown by the people of Puthuppally. No by-election in Kerala has got such a landslide margin. The message is very clear."
