Revolutionary Marxist Party of India (RMPI) leader K K Rema, whose husband TP Chandrashekharan was hacked to death in 2012, will win the Vadakara assembly constituency in Kozhikode district, according to the Manorama News-VMR exit poll result released on Thursday.
Rema, who contested with the support of the United Democratic Front (UDF) will get 36.8 per cent votes to win the seat, predicted the exit poll.
Left Democratic Front candidate Manayath Chandran of Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) will finish runner-up with 34.8 per cent votes.
The exit poll predicted a third place finish for the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate M Rajesh Kumar with 15.1 percent votes.
CPM workers had actively campaigned for Chandran to stop Rema from winning the election. CPM district committee will have to face many tough questions if the exit poll result comes true.
Rema’s RMPI was founded in Onchiyam in Kozhikode district by her husband TP Chandrasekharan, popularly known as T.P., after parting ways with the CPM over ideological differences. In 2012, T.P. was hacked to death. The murder created a huge political storm. Rema’s accusations that top CPM leaders, including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, were part of the conspiracy to kill T.P. had put CPM in the dock. Tweleve people, including three CPM leaders, were convicted for the murder.
Chandran was the UDF candidate in the last Assembly election in 2016. Contesting as the Janata Dal (United) candidate, he lost to LDF’s CK Nanu of Janata Dal (Secular) by 9,511 votes. JD (U) joined LDF in 2018. A year later, the Kerala unit of the party became LJD.
Both the incumbent MLA (Nanu) and the 2016 runner-up (Chandran) are in the LDF camp now, but the Left coalition preferred Chandran as its candidate disregarding Nanu’s strong claim for the seat.