Thiruvananthapuram: The United Democratic Front registered a significant victory in the local body bypolls held in 17 wards on Thursday.
While the UDF won in nine wards, the Left Democratic Front won in seven wards. BJP, meantime, won a seat.
The bypolls were held in two block panchayats and 15 grama panchayats across nine districts.
Out of 54 candidates in the fray, 22 candidates were women.
Kollam: The CPM and BJP won a seat each in the byelection held in two wards of the district.
S Anupama of the CPM won the Ottakkal ward of the Aryankavu grama panchayat with a majority of 34 votes. The Congress has been winning from the ward from the year 2000. The BJP wrested the Punjirichira ward from the CPM in Adichanalloor grama panchayat.
The BJP candidate, A S Ranjith, won by a margin of 100 votes. In the last election, the CPM candidate had won the ward by two votes.
Alappuzha: N P Rajan of the CPM won the 13th ward of Thalavady panchayat by 197 votes. He polled a total of 493 votes. The Congress candidate, Abhilash Punnepadam, received 296 votes while the Aam Aadmi Party got 108 votes. The BJP polled only 46 votes.
Kottayam: Reshma Praveen of the LDF won the byelection to the Maravanthuruthu division of the Vaikom block panchayat by 232 votes.
Her rival candidate of the UDF was Dhanya Sunil. It is the sitting seat of the LDF. In the last election, the LDF had won the division by a majority of over 1,000 votes. The byelection was caused after the sitting member, Sushama Santosh, resigned after she got a government job.
Ernakulam: The UDF won all the four grama panchayat wards in which byelections were conducted in the district. While the front retained the ward in Vadakkekara and Mookkannur, it wrested Ezhikkara and Pallippuram from the CPM.
Thrissur: The LDF retained the 15th ward (Thanikkudam) of the Madakkathara grama panchayat. The winning candidate was Mithun Theeyathuparambil of the CPI with a lead of 174 votes. The UDF which was placed in the second place in the last election, went down a notch to the third place while the BJP rose to the second place.
Malappuram: The UDF retained the block division and three grama panchayat wards in the district. In Chungathara grama panchayat, the wards where byelections were held included the one from which the member was disqualified for defection. With this, the UDF and LDF are evenly poised in the panchayat with 10 members each. The majority of votes went down at three places where the byelections were held this time. The winners are: Chemmaniyode division in Perinthalmanna block panchayat (UDF), Kalakunnu ward of Chungathara grama panchayat (UDF-Independent); Akkarappuram ward of Thuvvur grama panchayat (UDF); Kattilassery ward of Puzhakkatiri grama panchayat (UDF).
Palakkad: The LDF retained ward 7 (Thanikunnu) of Pukkottukavu grama panchayat. The LDF candidate, P Manoj, won by a majority of 303 votes. He defeated the Congress candidate, Unnikrishnan.
Kozhikode: The Paladikunnu ward of Velam panchayat was retained by the UDF. E P Salim of the Muslim League defeated the Left-Independent candidate, P P Vijayan, by a majority of 42 votes. The vote tally: E P Salim (UDF, 633), P P Vijayan (LDF-Independent, 591) and R K Sankaran (BJP, 16).
Kannur: The CPM retained the two wards in the district. The Pareekadavu ward of Dharmadam grama panchayat was won by B Geethamma (majority of 9 votes) and Thattiyode ward of Munderi panchayat by B P Reeshma (majority of 393 votes).
