The highly anticipated Pala contest is seeing United Democratic Front (UDF)’s Mani C Kappan taking a massive lead over Left Democratic Front (LDF)’s Jose K Mani. According to reports, Kappan has a lead of 7,854 votes in Pala.
Reportedly, Jose is likely to face another defeat in the Assembly elections. The last time Kappan and Jose contested against each other was in the 2019 bye-elections for the Pala seat, following the passing away of late Kerala Finance Minister KM Mani. While Jose fought on UDF’s ticket, Kappan was fighting on LDF’s ticket. Jose lost the 2019 election to Kappan by 2,247 votes, thus helping the LDF gain the Pala seat.
Following a fallout with the UDF, Jose joined the LDF ahead of the LSG polls in December. He made an immediate impact by helping the LDF breaching the UDF’s Kottayam fortress. With Jose helping the LDF win in LSG polls, Kappan said he would not give on the Pala seat ahead of the Assembly election.
Following this, Kappan left the LDF when the Front decided to field Jose from Pala. Kappan joined the UDF in the presence of Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala earlier this year. The UDF decided to field Kappan from Pala.
When counting started in Kerala, Jose had a massive lead but by midday, Kappan took the lead by 5,000 votes. With Kappan leading, the UDF will regain the Pala seat from the LDF.
