Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) candidate M.P. Abdussamad Samadani increased his lead in Malappuram Lok Sabha byelection to 93,301 over Left Democratic Front (LDF) rival V.P. Sanu.
When Mr. Samadani gained 50.11 per cent votes, Mr. Sanu got 37.5 per cent votes. BJP candidate A.P. Abdullakutty got only 5.95 per cent votes.
The byelection in Malappuram was necessitated when IUML national general secretary P.K. Kunhalikutty resigned from the Lok Sabha to contest to the Assembly. Mr. Kunhalikutty has been elected to the Assembly from Vengara with a comfortable margin.
In the general election held in 2019, Mr. Kunhalikutty was elected from Malappuram with a record margin of 260,153 votes. He defeated Mr. Sanu in that election.
In a byelection held in 2017 following the death of sitting MP and IUML national president E. Ahamed, Mr. Kunhalikutty had defeated LDF’s M.B. Faisal by 171,023 votes.
