THIRUVANANTHAPURAM – Amid the worst ever poll debacle for the Congress Party with a crushing defeat of most of its senior union ministers and leaders, the ministers from the southern state of Kerala managed to salvage some pride for the party. All the six central ministers from Kerala, including five from the Congress and one from the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), have retained their respective seats. The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) won 12 seats in the election, which is four less from its tally of 16 in the previous election. Even though the Left Democratic Front (LDF) managed to improve its tally from four in 2009 elections to eight this time, CPM, the major constituent of the front, had suffered a big blow when M.A. Baby, the only Politburo member who was in the fray this time, and a Central Committee member lost the election. The election saw humiliating defeat of the second left party CPI whose strength was reduced to a single member in the Lok Sabha and the seat is from Kerala. Interestingly, RSP, another left party, was reduced to blank as its Kerala unit broke away from the alliance, and won a seat after joining UDF just before the election. In the prestigious Thiruvananthapuram constituency, fortunes may have fluctuated during the counting process for India's Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor, but he finally did manage to pip his main rival O. Rajagopal of BJP to the post. Tharoor's winning margin was whittled down considerably from a staggering 99,998 votes in 2009 to a mere 14,501 this time. However, BJP could not open an account in Kerala this time also. In Ernakulam, Food, Public Distribution, Consumer Affairs Minister K.V. Thomas retained his seat with a handsome margin of 87,047 votes, defeating LDF independent candidate Christie Fernandes. Minister of State for Labor Kodikunnil Suresh retained his Mavelikara seat defeating his traditional rival Chengera Surendran of CPI by a margin of 32,330 votes. In Alappuzha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation K.C. Venugopal won for a second time, defeating CPM rival C.B. Chandrababu by a margin of 20,379 votes. Another close battle was witnessed in the Vadakara seat where union Minister of State for Home Mulapally Ramachandran retained the seat with a slender margin of 3,306 votes. IUML National President and Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed scored a landslide victory from the party's bastion of Malappuram with a record margin of 194,739 votes while IUML National Secretary and former Minister of Education E.T. Muhammad Basheer's margin fell to 25,410 votes from 82,684 in 2009. Congress party's spokesman and Joint Parliament Committee Chairman P.C. Chacko was defeated by the popular comedian and president of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA). The actor-turned-politician Innocent became a giantkiller when he beat Chacko by a margin of 13,884 votes from Chalakudy, and making it one of the biggest surprises in Kerala's election history. CPM politburo member M.A. Baby lost to his former Cabinet colleague N.K. Premachandran of the RSP by 37,649 votes. RSP was a member of the left front till Baby's candidature was announced from Kollam constituency for which RSP had staked a claim. This irked RSP, and it called off its nearly three-decade-long relation with the LDF and jumped into the UDF. The relief for CPI came from C.N. Jayadevan when he defeated the sitting member of the Congress K.P. Dhanapalan by a margin of 38,227 votes from Thrissur. Veteran Socialist and media figure M.P. Virendra Kumar had suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of CPM's young leader M.B. Rajesh by a margin of 105,300 votes in the Palakkad constituency.
