The UDF’s Fathima Thahliya has delivered a telling blow to the LDF, by winning for her party a constituency that has been an Left bastion for 46 years.

Thahliya registered the historic victory by a margin of 5,087, garnering 81,429 votes against LDF candidate T P Ramakrishnan's 76,342, after 19 rounds of counting. The BJP's M Mohanan Master managed 13,042 votes to end third.

Perambra, an LDF bastion for long, had hit the headlines quite early during the high voltage election campaign, with the LDF targeting Fathima Thahliya, using what could be considered a communal weapon. The ruling party had alleged the Indian Union Muslim League, to which Thahliya belonged, was seeking votes by projecting her as ‘Kauminte Kutti’.

The word Kaum in Arabic meant 'people belonging to Islam'. Thahliya, 34, who helped found Haritha, the women’s wing of the MSF, in 2012, had retorted saying she was the ‘UDF’s kutti’. The UDF had also filed a complaint with authorities including the Election Commission against the LDF. ​

With this, Perambra had gone into a fierce battle, with allegations continuing to be traded between Ramakrishnan, who was also the LDF convenor, and Thahliya. Ramakrishnan (75), a former Excise and Labour minister, has held the seat since 2016, with the CPM on the other hand, keeping its flag flying high in Perambra since 1980.

In 2021, Ramakrishnan got 52.7 percent of the polled votes, translating into 86,023 votes, while the UDF-backed independent, C.H. Ebrahim Kutty got 63,431 votes, which was 38.8 percent of the vote share. The turnout was 86.63 percent then.

On poll day, the segment recorded a voter turnout of more than 80%. Despite the LDF’s victory margin of 22,592 votes in 2021, the UDF remained confident, with Thahliya claiming that the turnout of more than 80% would work in favour of the UDF. The same has turned out to be true now. 

The UDF, sensing a chance after remaining in the gallery for over 45 years, did not let the steam out even after polling. A few days after the election, it stirred up a controversy by alleging a conspiracy behind the opening of a room at JDT Institute in Vellimadukunnu, where polling-related materials were kept for the Perambra constituency.

The efforts have paid off, with the UDF managing, through a gritty Thahliya, to raise its flag where it was denied a chance to do so for nearly five decades.