Emphatic win for Cong in Kerala by-poll

In the crucial Neyyattinkara by-election Congress candidate R Selvaraj notched an emphatic win giving much relief to the Oommen Chandy-led UDF government.

In the crucial Neyyattinkara by-election Congress candidate R Selvaraj notched an emphatic win giving much relief to the Oommen Chandy-led UDF government, which is on a wafer-thin majority in Kerala assembly.

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In the three-cornered fight he emerged victorious with a margin of over 6000 votes. The by-election was necessitated after Selvaraj, a CPM legislator, quit the assembly and party alleging victimization.

Later he joined the Congress, which made him a candidate here. With this win UDF tally has gone up to 73 in the 140-member house (LDF 67). Reacting to the win PCC chief Ramesh Chennithala said it is a verdict against the CPM’s ‘politics of violence’.