By-polls: Congress grabs all three seats in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 10: In the struggle for power between the old rivals Congress and Left front in the state of Kerala, Congress emerged victorious by winning all three constituencies that saw by-elections.

In Kannur, which is considered as the 'red' bastion, Congress' AP Abdullakutty thrashed MV Jayarajan of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) with a large vote margin of 12,000 votes.

Abdullahkutty was a former CPI-M Lok Sabha member. He was expelled from CPI-M in Jan 2009 for praising Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi. He later joined Congress in Apr 2009 and contested as an INC candidate for the Kannur assembly constituency in the by election.

Dominic Presentation defeated CPI-M's PN Seenulal by more than 8,000 votes in Ernakulam, while in Alappuzha AA Shukur defeated G Krishnaprasad of the Communist Party of India (CPI) by over 5,000 votes.

The poor performance in the Nov 2009 by polls comes as a massive disappointment to the Left front as these by polls were considered as the litmus test for the Left indicating how it would perform in the 2011 Assembly Polls.

OneIndia News