Kannur district turned red on Sunday as the Left Democratic Front swept the Assembly elections by winning nine of the 11 constituencies.
The LDF managed a comfortable win in Payyanur, Kaliyassery, Taliparamba, Kannur, Azhikode, Mattanur, Dharmadam, Koothuparamba, and Thalassery constituencies.
The United Democratic Front managed to retain its sitting seats in Irrikur and Peravoor while losing the Azhikode constituency to the LDF.
The UDF has been consecutively winning the Azhikode constituency. However, it received a major blow in the constituency, where the sitting MLA and Indian Union of Muslim League leader, K.M. Shaji, lost the election to the LDF candidate, K.V. Sumesh, by a margin of 5,405 votes. After the delimitation, the constituency, which was an LDF bastion, was won by UDF in the last two Assembly elections.
However, now the LDF wrested back the constituency by fielding Mr. Sumesh.
As expected, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan won the election in Dharmadam constituency by a comfortable margin, defeating the UDF candidate C. Ragunathan. Mr. Vijayan, who received 95,522 votes defeated the UDF candidate with a huge margin of 50,123 votes.
In Mattanur, Health Minister K.K. Shailaja defeated her close rival, Illikkal Agasthy of the UDF by a margin of 60,963 votes. It was no different in Koothaparamba, where LDF candidate K.P. Mohanan of Loktantrik Janatha Dal defeated the UDF candidate Pottankandi Abdulla by a margin of 9,541 votes.
In Thalassery, A.N. Shamsheer continued his winning streak by defeating the UDF candidate, M.P. Arvindakshan, by a margin of 36,801 votes. While in the LDF stronghold of Kalliassery, 30-year-old LDF candidate M.Vijin, who was contesting for the first time, won the election by a whopping margin of 44,393 votes to defeat the UDF candidate Brijesh Kumar.
In Payyanur, LDF candidate T.I. Madhusoodanan won the election by defeating his nearest rival of UDF M. Pradeep Kumar by a margin of 49,780.
LDF candidate Kadannappally Ramachandran once again ensured his victory in Kannur constituency, where he defeated UDF candidate Satheeshan Pacheni by 1,745 votes.
In Taliparamba constituency, senior CPI(M) leader and LDF candidate M.V. Govindan won the election.
Despite a win in Taliparamba, which is a LDF stronghold, there was huge dip in the vote share and Mr. Govindan won the election by a margin of 22,689 votes. This is in contrast with the 2016 elections when the LDF candidate won the election by 40,617 votes.
For the UDF, sitting MLA, Sunny Joseph, retained the seat in Peravoor by defeating the LDF candidate Zakhi Hussain by a margin of 3,352 votes. The Irrikkur seat was won by Sajeev Joseph, who defeated LDF candidate Saji Kuttiyanimattom by a margin of 10,010 votes.
