Malappuram Bye-Election Results 2017: IUML candidate P K Kunhalikutty wins, CPI(M) and BJP fails to impress

As the counting of votes for Malappuram bye-election came to an end, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML)'s candidate and former Kerala Industries minister PK Kunhalikutty won the Malappuram bye-election 2017.

Malappuram, April 17: As the counting of votes for Malappuram bye-election came to an end, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML)’s candidate and former Kerala Industries minister PK Kunhalikutty won the Malappuram bye-election 2017. With this the IUML retains the Malappuram constituency which went to bypolls on April 12. On the other hand CPI(M) candidate M B Faisal came in second, while BJP’s Sree Prakash came in third. Kunhalikutty’s win does not come as a surprise as from the time that counting begin, he led with a massive margin.

With 5,15,330 votes, P K Kunhalikutty won the Malappuram bypolls by a margin of 171023 votes. CPI-M candidate M B Faisal came at second spot with 3,44,307 votes, while the BJP’s Sree Prakash got 65,675 votes in the Malappuram bypolls. Speaking to the media Kunhalikutty said the party has led in village councils where the Left was ruling. “This is because the electorate has placed faith in me as I spoke about the need for a secular outlook. Also the unity of the Congress-led-UDF has helped us in this,” Kunhalikutty added.

Initially, Kunhalikutty showed full confidence in his voters when he said that he will not say by how much margin he would win as his voters have already made that decision. Following that he deemed his party’s poll promise of ‘secularism’ as the primary reason that has appealed to the voters in the constituency. Notably, CPI(M) which came in second also propagated the idea of ‘secularism’. And hence, Kunhalikutty’s comment does make sense. Also, to emphasise this point, we must know that according to The News Minute, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s poll promise was development.

There were nine candidates in the fray for the Malappuram bye-elections 2017. Apart from IUML’s Kunhalikutty, the other contenders were CPI(M)’s M B Faisal and BJP’s N. Sreeprakash. Apart from that there were six other independent candidates in fray.

Counting of Malappuram bye-poll vote began today at 8 am at the Government College, Malappuram. The Lok Sabha constituency registered a polling turnout of around 68%. There were 13 lakh voters in this electorate. Seven assembly constituencies in the district, namely Malappuram, Vengara, Kondotty, Vallikkunnu, Perinthalmanna, Mankada and Manjeri constitute the Lok Sabha constituency.