Congress to introspect Chelakkara bypoll debacle

Thrissur, Kerala: Amid criticisms of organisational lapses and candidate selection failure contributing to the Congress's defeat in the Chelakkara Assembly by-election, senior party leaders on Sunday said that they will introspect on the poll setback in the segment.

Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan said that the defeat in Chelakkara would be examined.

"The defeat in Chelakkara, along with the victories in Wayanad and Palakkad, will be looked over," he told reporters here.

The ruling LDF in Kerala on Saturday retained the Chelakkara Assembly segment by defeating the Congress-led UDF. CPI(M) nominee U R Pradeep won the seat, defeating Congress candidate Ramya Haridas by an impressive margin of 12,201 votes.

Pradeep secured 64,827 votes, while Haridas managed 52,626 votes. The BJP-NDA nominee, K Balakrishnan, finished third with 33,609 votes, according to Election Commission figures.

Responding to the queries about whether the candidate selection in Chelakkara was a failure, Satheesan stated that the leadership had made the decision and also bears responsibility for the defeat.

He said that Ramya Haridas was the MP of the constituency.

"My calculations also went wrong in Chelakkara, as I had estimated that the UDF would win by a margin of at least 3,000 votes," he admitted.

However, he clarified that there were no lapses in the campaign.

"The campaign activities there were excellent, even better than those in Palakkad," he added.

According to party sources, resentment within the party surfaced on social media on Sunday after a discussion in a WhatsApp group of local Congress leaders, where they expressed frustration over the failure despite extensive campaign efforts by senior leaders.

They also criticised the decision to field a candidate who had been rejected by the people in the recent Parliament elections.

However, Satheesan said that the party's organisational weaknesses in the Thrissur district would be addressed within a year, restoring its strength to previous levels.

KPCC working president Kodikkunil Suresh also admitted organisational weakness in Chelakkara.

"We formed booth committees ahead of the bypoll, but our machinery did not function as effectively as the CPI(M)'s well-oiled organisational setup," he told a TV channel in New Delhi on Sunday.

Kodikunnil added that despite the extensive campaign efforts, the UDF faced a setback in the bypoll, and this would be reviewed within both the Congress party and the UDF.