Shafi’s hat-trick dashes BJP’s hopes in Palakkad

Defeats Sreedharan by 3,840 votes, terms it a victory of secularism

The United Democratic Front (UDF)’s incumbent MLA Shafi Parambil dashed the hopes of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to wrest Palakkad through technocrat E. Sreedharan. Mr. Sreedharan had gained a clear lead over Mr. Parambil and the Left Democratic Front (LDF)’s C.P. Pramod in the initial hours of counting, raising hope in the BJP camp. His lead even went up to 8,000 votes at one time. While Mr. Sreedharan got his lead mainly from the Palakkad municipality, where the BJP is in power, Mr. Parambil began to make gains when the counting moved to the neighbouring panchayats. The Palakkad Assembly constituency is made up of Palakkad municipality and Kannadi, Pirayiri and Mathur grama panchayats. While the town supported Mr. Sreedharan, the grama panchayats stood by Mr. Parambil.