NDA declared, N Hari, the Kottayam district president of BJP, as its candidate. In the last 2016 elections, N Hari had secured 17.76 per cent votes to the shock of both LDF and the United Democratic Front.

Thiruvananthapuram: The Pala Assembly constituency is all set to witness a repeat of the 2016 election as the CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) have decide to repeat the same candidates for the upcoming bypoll on September 23.

NDA declared, N Hari, the Kottayam district president of BJP, as its candidate. In the last 2016 elections, N Hari had secured 17.76 per cent votes to the shock of both LDF and the United Democratic Front (UDF).

The ruling LDF has zeroed-in on the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Mani C. Kappen as its candidate for a fourth time, while the incumbent UDF has decided to field a new candidate – Kerala Congress (M) leader Jose Tom Pulikkunnel in KM Mani’s stead.

In the last Assembly election, the NDA took everyone by surprise by a registering a near four-fold increase in votes (from 6,359 to 24,821). Curiously, in a traditional UDF belt, the winning margin was 4,703 votes.

In the 2019 LS polls too, NDA continued its track record in Pala as the LDF failed to raise its share. NDA candidate in the Kottayam Lok Sabha former union minister P.C. Thomas managed to improve the number of votes in the Assembly segment to 26,533 while, CPM leader VN Vasavan, the LDF candidate, could garner only 33,499 votes, a decline of 20,682 votes, which equals the victory margin of Thomas Chazhikkadan, the Kerala Congress (M) candidate, 33,472 votes.

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