Thiruvambady:The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF)'s wafer-thin victory margin in Thiruvambady assembly by-polls in Kerala has thrown up enough food for thought for the victor and the vanquished, including open unhappiness among some on the entry of Kerala veteran K. Karunakaran into the LDF.

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) candidate George M. Thomas scraped through by just 246 votes over nearest rival V.M. Ummer Master of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), an ally of the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF).

While Thomas bagged 64,112 votes, Ummer got 63,866 votes and the Bharatiya Janata Party's Gireesh Thevally 4,758 votes.

Reacting to the slender margin, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said the election result was a performance rating of his six months in the chair and it clearly showed that the speed of governance should be stepped up.

"The margin of victory is an indication that the speed of my government's functioning has to be stepped up, and it will be done. Likewise we will also speed up the inquiries into various corruption cases," said Achuthanandan.

An interesting fallout of the result was the attitude towards K. Karunakaran and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to which he now belongs after merging his Democratic Indira Congress-Karunakaran with it last month.

"Maybe the LDF would have got higher majority If we did not have the support of Karunakaran," said Communist Party of India (CPI) state secretary Veliyam Bharghavan.

Achuthanandan aired similar views. "I don't think the voters have taken the role played by Karunakaran and NCP as a good response," he said.

But Pinnarayi Vijayan, state secretary CPI-M, did not think so. He said: "Both Karunakaran and the NCP gave us enough support and helped us."

Karunakaran said it clearly indicated that the NCP cannot be ignored.

"I do not see this victory as an endorsement of the Achuthanandan government, because it was more an emotional election after the death of CPI-M legislator Mathai Chacko," said the veteran who is now waiting for a call from the LDF.

The Muslim League put up a brave face despite the loss. P.K. Kunhalikutty, the League strongman, said: "A look at the victory margin clearly shows that we have gone forward in a big way."

UDF convenor P.P. Thankachen said it was merely a technical victory for the LDF.

"Now is the time for us to work together and we will soon be in the forefront. We are happy that we put up a really good fight and lost narrowly," said Thankachen.

In the May assembly polls, Mathai Chacko had won by more than 5,000 votes.

And now with the results out, all eyes are on what would be the stand of the LDF with the CPI-M and CPI at logger heads.

The victory is a welcome for the CPI, which has taken up cudgels against the entry of Karunakaran into the LDF. 

Likewise in the UDF, it is time for the Muslim League to put its act together because the defeat has dented the League's hopes of a comeback.

--Indo-Asian News Service