The previous State Assembly elections held in 2016 was a close call for many of the legislators going by their margin of victory. Twenty seven of the 140 sitting MLAs had passed the electoral battle by securing a margin of less than 5,000 votes.
Of this, eight were candidates of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), while one was an independent backed by the Left Democratic Front (LDF). The Indian Union Muslim League was second, with five of its MLAs making it to the Assembly through a margin of less than 5,000 votes. They were followed by the Communist Party of India (4), the Indian National Congress (3) and the Kerala Congress(M) (3). The Congress (S), the Nationalist Congress Party and the National Secular Conference marked one each.
Neck-and-neck race
Among the CPI(M) legislators, four cleared the electoral test by a margin of less than 2,000 votes. The corresponding number of candidates of the Muslim League was also four as they had a neck-and-neck race with the Left front candidates. Only one of the three MLAs of the Congress party figured in the category of elected members who could manage a lead of less than 2,000 votes. Two CPI MLAs also figured in this list.
Eleven candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance had won over 20,000 votes in the constituencies in which the winning candidate had a victory margin of less than 5,000 votes. Of this, six had secured more than 30,000 votes.
Anil Akkara of the Congress entered the Assembly with the lowest victory margin of 43 votes in the race for the Wadakkancherry constituency. P. B. Abdul Razak of the Muslim League, who represented Manjeswaram, edged past K. Surendran of the BJP by a lead of 89 votes. Among the CPI(M) candidates, I. B. Sathish had the lowest margin (849 votes) in the election held for the Kattakada segment followed by K. J. Maxi in Kochi with a victory margin of 1,086 votes. E. S. Bijimol had the lowest victory margin (314 votes) among the candidates of the CPI.
