Kerala: Oomen Chandy's Son To Be Congress Candidate For Puthuppally Bypoll To Be Held On 5 September

The Congress has announced the candidature of Chandy Oommen, the son of former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who passed away recently, for the bypoll in the Puthuppally Assembly constituency.

The bypoll would be held on 5 September.

Chandy Oomen's candidature was approved by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge within hours of the announcement by the Election Commission.

VD Satheesan, the Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly said that the bypoll would be a referendum on the performance of Left Democratic Front (LDF) government led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Further, he said that the party hoped to repeat its performance in the Thrikkakara bypoll.

A bypoll was necessitated in Thrikkakara in 2022 after the death of Congress leader PT Thomas. The party fielded his wife, Usha Thomas and she won the seat by getting a vote share of 54 per cent, which was eight per cent more than the previous election.

CPI(M) state secretary MV Govindan, who has been facing criticism for his remarks implying Lord Ganesha to be a myth while defending Speaker AN Shamseer's remarks, said that his party was confident of victory as it controlled a number of panchayats and cooperative societies in the constituency.

In the 2021 Assembly elections, while Oomen Chandy secured 48.08 per cent votes, the CPI(M) candidate Jaick C Thomas secured 41.22 per cent. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate N Hari finished third receiving 8.87 per cent votes.