TRIVANDRUM, 23 November 2005 — All efforts to win back voters by Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy fell flat as his Congress party-led United Democratic Front candidate V.S. Sivakumar suffered a crushing defeat in the Lok Sabha by-election in the capital constituency yesterday.

Pannian Raveendran, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate fielded by Communist Party of India, won the seat with a resounding margin of 74,200 votes, improving on the 54,000 vote majority of his predecessor, late chief minister P.K. Vasudevan Nair.

The façade of unity and the development mantra of the UDF failed to enthuse the voters who stuck to the time-tested habit of trying rival dispensations alternately. Analysts feel that the defeat has made going tough for the ruling front that has less than six months to go.

Bharatiya Janata Party’s former state unit President C.K. Padmanabhan ended up a distant third polling just 36,690 votes, a far cry from the 228,052 votes cornered by his party colleague O. Rajagopal in the 2004 elections.

The BJP state President P.S. Sreedharan Pillai owned up moral responsibility for the poor show and sent in his resignation to BJP President Lal Krishna Advani. “I put in my papers yesterday, before the votes were counted,” he said.

Opposition leaders immediately called for the resignation of the chief minister, who rejected the demand. “You cannot seek my resignation just for a by-election defeat,” Chandy told reporters.

He has been leading the campaign from the front as the outcome seen as a litmus test for his popularity ahead of the assembly poll in April or May. The LDF is maintaining its winning spree that began with the 2004 parliamentary elections when it wiped out Congress in the state.

Now all the 20 MPs from the southern state belong to the LDF barring the lone seat won by junior Foreign Minister E. Ahmed (Indian Union Muslim League) in 2004.

Raveendran cornered 390,324 votes against Sivakumar’s 316,124. Padmanabhan forfeited his deposit in the party’s worst performance in the state capital since its formation.

Chandy took over early this year from A.K. Antony who put in his papers owning responsibility for the 2004 rout.

This year, the UDF suffered heavy setbacks in two assembly by-elections and the civic poll held recently.

The left combine supported by K. Karunakaran’s breakaway Congress established lead in all but one (Parassala) assembly segments spread over the capital city and its rural surroundings. Democratic Indira Congress-Karunakaran also proved a force to reckon with and the LDF reciprocated by offering more “fruitful alliance” in the coming elections.

Debutant Raveendran, CPI’s sate assistant secretary upset the UDF calculations of harnessing regional, caste and communal factors for a badly needed victory.

Raveendran appears to have got majority of votes polled in favor of the BJP in the last elections. Sivakumar also garnered 75,000 votes more when the BJP just disappeared from the scene and its candidate lost his security deposit.

Congress state President Ramesh Chennithala alleged that Karunakaran had entered into a secret understanding with the BJP’s national leaders for bartering their votes.

“One of the factors for the defeat is the BJP votes, which were secured by Karunakaran for the LDF. At the center, Congress is the major target of the BJP and in the state the left is against us. The BJP wanted to humiliate Congress both at the center and the state,” he told reporters.

‘’When Karunakaran was in Congress, Sivakumar got about 231,000 votes in the last elections. But when he left, it went up to 316,124 votes. His switching sides is inconsequential,” he added.

“This is the happiest moment of my life. I expect the chief minister to resign in the wake of the humiliating defeat,” Karunakaran said.