Thiruvananthapuram: UDF's Aryadan Shoukath will be sworn in as the new MLA of Nilambur on Friday. The oath-taking ceremony is scheduled for 3.30 pm at the Sankaranarayanan Thampi Hall in the Kerala Legislative Assembly.

The UDF reclaimed the Nilambur constituency after a gap of eight years, securing a majority of 11,077 votes in the recent byelection. This will be the third time Congress has won a bypoll in Nilambur. It had previously won bypolls in 1970 and 1980.

Sources in the UDF confirmed that the Legislature Secretariat announced the date and time of the ceremony around noon on Wednesday. Speaker AN Shamseer will administer the oath of office.

Shoukath weathered a spirited performance by independent candidate P V Anvar in the first five rounds of counting. He stormed the LDF bastions and left a significant dent on CPM's vote share in Pothukallu and Nilambur.

Nilambur bypoll result also bucked the trend of recent byelections. UDF and LDF retained their seats respectively in Palakkad and Chelakkara bypolls held in 2024. UDF also won the Thrikkakkara bypoll held in 2022, in which Uma Thomas won with a record majority.