2019 Kerala Legislative Assembly by-elections

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Manjeshwar, Ernakulam, Pala, Aroor, Konni and Vattiyoorkavu Niyamasabha constituencies
Turnout	70.11%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Pinarayi Vijayan Ramesh Chennithala P. S. Sreedharan Pillai Party CPI(M) INC BJP Alliance   LDF   UDF   NDA Leader's seat Dharmadom Haripad Did not contest Last election 01 05 00 Seats won 03 03 00 Seat change 02 02  – Popular vote 302,717 308,359 172,407 Percentage 37.97% 38.68% 21.63% Swing 1.53% 1.78% 0.09%
Chief Minister before election Pinarayi Vijayan CPI(M) Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan CPI(M)

Six assembly by-elections were held on 23 September and 21 October 2019, to the six vacant seats in the Kerala Niyamasabha which consists of 140 constituencies in total.

By-election took place in two phases. The first phase was conducted on 23 September for Pala Constituency.^[1] The remaining 5 assembly constituencies (Manjeshwar, Ernakulam, Aroor, Konni and Vattiyoorkavu) voted to elect their representatives on 21 October.^[2] The counting of votes was conducted on 27 September in Pala and on 24 October in the other five constituencies.

Schedule for the by-elections

Pala

The first phase by-election was held for the Pala Constituency in Kerala.^[3]

Manjeshwaram, Ernakulam, Aroor, Konni and Vattiyoorkavu

The second phase by-elections were held for the remaining 5 vacant assembly constituencies in Kerala.^[4]

Electorates

There were 11,36,616 electorates from the 6 niyamasabha constituencies where the by-elections were held. Constituency wise details are given below:

Alliances and parties

There are two major political coalitions in Kerala. The United Democratic Front (UDF) is the coalition of centrist and center-left parties led by the Indian National Congress. The Left Democratic Front (LDF) is the coalition of left-wing and far-left parties, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)).

  LDF

They are a coalition of left-wing political parties in Kerala. It is one of the two major political coalitions in the state, the other being the UDF, both of which has been in power alternatively for the last two decades. After winning a majority of the seats in the Niyamasabha elections, they are currently in power. The coalition consists of CPI(M), CPI and a variety of other smaller parties. LDF fields four CPI(M) candidates, an NCP candidate and an independent to fight in the by-poll.

No.	Party	Flag	Symbol	Photo	Leader	Seats contested	Male	Female
1.	Communist Party of India (Marxist)				Kodiyeri Balakrishnan	Manjeshwaram Aroor, Konni, Vattiyoorkavu	4	0
2.	Nationalist Congress Party					Pala	1	0
3.	LDF Independent				A. Vijayaraghavan	Ernakulam	1	0

  UDF

It is an alliance of central-wing political parties in the state, created by the prominent INC party leader K. Karunakaran in the 1970s. UDF fielded four INC candidates, an IUML candidate and an independent for the vacant constituencies.

No.	Party	Flag	Symbol	Photo	Leader	Seats contested	Male	Female
1.	Indian National Congress				Mullappally Ramachandran	Ernakulam, Aroor, Konni Vattiyoorkavu	3	1
2.	Indian Union Muslim League				Sayed Hyderali Shihab Thangal	Manjeshwar	1	0
3.	UDF Independent				Benny Behanan	Pala	1	0

  NDA

It is a coalition of right-leaning political parties in India. NDA gave all the six seats for the BJP to contest.

No.	Party	Flag	Symbol	Photo	Leader	Seats contested	Male	Female
1.	Bharatiya Janata Party				P. S Sreedharan Pillai	Manjeshwar, Ernakulam, Pala, Aroor, Konni Vattiyoorkavu	6	0

Constituency-wise Candidates

The LDF fielded four CPI(M) candidates, an NCP candidate and an independent to win the seats. UDF fielded four INC candidates, an IUML candidate and an independent. NDA fielded six BJP candidates.

Exit Polls

The Manorama News and the Mathrubhumi News published their exit poll predictions in the constituencies where the election was held on 21 October 2019. Asianet News had published their exit poll predictions for Pala, where the election was held earlier.

Polling day

Polling took place on 23 September 2019 in Pala and on 21 October 2019 in the remaining five Niyamasabha constituencies.

Results in a glance

The results at a glance are given below:

By alliance

Both the LDF and the UDF won three seats each. The NDA could not win any seats.

	Alliance	Seats Contested	Seats Won	Seat Change	Vote %	Swing %
	UDF	06	03	02	38.68	1.78
	LDF	06	03	02	37.97	1.53
	NDA	06	00	00	21.63	0.09
Total		06

Party-wise

Each of the CPI(M) and the INC won in two seats. The remaining two seats were bagged by the NCP and the IUML respectively.

LDF		SEATS	UDF		SEATS	NDA		SEATS
CPI(M)		02	INC		02	BJP		00
NCP		01	IUML		01
LDF Independent		00	UDF Independent		00
Total		03	Total		03	Total		00
Change		02	Change		02	Change		00

By district

By constituency

Detailed results

1. Manjeshwar

2019 Kerala Legislative Assembly by-elections : Manjeshwar

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	IUML	M. C. Kamaruddin	65,407	40.19%	4.40
	BJP	Raveesh Thanthri Kuntar	57,484	35.32%	0.42
	CPI(M)	M. Shankara Rai	38,233	23.49%	3.30
	NOTA	None of the Above	574	0.35%	0.06
	Independent	Govindan B. Alinthazhe	337	0.21%	N/A
	Independent	John D. Souza	277	0.17%	0.04
	Independent	Rajesh B.	232	0.14%	N/A
	Independent	Kamarudheen M. C.	211	0.13%	N/A
Margin of victory			7,923	4.87%	4.82
Turnout			162,755	75.78%	0.55
	IUML hold		Swing	4.40

^[8]

82. Ernakulam

2019 Kerala Legislative Assembly by-elections : Ernakulam

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	INC	T. J. Vinod	37,891	42.13%	10.19
	LDF	Manu Roy	34,141	37.96%	5.50
	BJP	C. G. Rajagopal	13,351	14.85%	1.39
	Independent	Manu K. M.	2,572	2.86%	N/A
	NOTA	None of the Above	1,309	1.46%	0.61
	Independent	Vinod A. P.	206	0.23%	N/A
	SFB	Abdul Khader	175	0.19%	N/A
	Independent	Jaisen Thomas	116	0.13%	N/A
	Independent	Bosco Louis	93	0.10%	N/A
	Independent	Ashokan	78	0.09%	N/A
Margin of victory			3,750	4.17%	15.69
Turnout			89,932	57.91%	13.81
	INC hold		Swing	10.19

^[9]

93. Pala

^[10]

102. Aroor

2019 Kerala Legislative Assembly by-elections : Aroor

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	INC	Shanimol Usman	69,356	44.88%	16.34
	CPI(M)	Manu C. Pulikkal	67,277	43.54%	8.80
	BJP	K. P. Prakash Babu	16,289	10.54%	N/A
	NOTA	None of the Above	840	0.54%	0.09
	Independent	Geetha Asokan	352	0.23%	N/A
	Independent	K. B. Sunil Kumar	278	0.18%	N/A
	Independent	Alleppy Sugunan	142	0.09%	N/A
Margin of victory			2,079	1.34%	22.46
Turnout			154,534	80.47%	5.36
	INC gain from CPI(M)		Swing	16.34

^[11]

114. Konni

2019 Kerala Legislative Assembly by-elections : Konni

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	CPI(M)	K. U. Jenish Kumar	54,099	38.96%	2.63
	INC	P. Mohanraj	44,146	31.79%	19.02
	BJP	K. Surendran	39,786	28.65%	16.99
	NOTA	None of the Above	469	0.34%	0.01
	Independent	Joemon Joseph Srampickal	235	0.17%	N/A
	Independent	Sivanandan	124	0.09%	N/A
Margin of victory			9,953	7.17%	7.31
Turnout			138,859	70.07%	2.92
	CPI(M) gain from INC		Swing	2.63

^[12]

133. Vattiyoorkavu

2019 Kerala Legislative Assembly by-elections: Vattiyoorkavu

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	CPI(M)	V. K. Prasanth	54,830	44.25%	14.46
	INC	K. Mohankumar	40,365	32.58%	5.23
	BJP	S. Suresh	27,453	22.16%	10.03
	NOTA	None of the Above	820	0.66%	0.06
	Independent	A.Mohanakumar	135	0.11%	N/A
	Independent	Nagaraj G.	100	0.08%	N/A
	Independent	Suresh S. S.	93	0.08%	N/A
	Independent	Murukan A.	76	0.06%	N/A
	Independent	Mithran G.	38	0.03%	N/A
Majority			14,465	11.67%	6.06
Turnout			123,910	62.66%	7.17
	CPI(M) gain from INC		Swing	14.46

^[13]

List of the newly elected MLAs to the 14th Kerala Niyamasabha

As a result of the 2019 Kerala Legislative Assembly by-elections, six new members were elected to the Kerala Niyamasabha.

Assembly seat share post by-elections

After the 2019 Kerala Legislative Assembly by-elections, the composition of 14th Kerala Legislative Assembly changed as per given below:

The Kerala Niyamasabha is composed of 141 seats (140 elected and 1 nominated). After the by-elections, the Government of Kerala has the support of 93 members.

Total (141)

Government (93)

• LDF (93)
  •   CPI(M) (60)
  •   CPI (19)
  •   JD(S) (3)
  •   NCP (3)
  •   C(S) (1)
  •   KC(B) (1)
  •   NSC (1)
  •   IND (5)

Opposition (47)

• UDF (45)
  •   INC (21)
  •   IUML (18)
  •   KC(M) (5)
  •   KC(J) (1)
• NDA (2)
  •   BJP (1)
  •   KJ(S) (1)
• Others(1)
  •   Nominated (1)