In a massive win, Congress led UDF Thursday swept 18 of the total 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala, with AICC chief Rahul Gandhi emerging victorious from Wayanad with a record margin of over four lakh votes.
The results came as a rude shock to the ruling CPI(M)-led LDF government headed by Pinarayi Vijayan, who had led the combine's charge, as the Marxist party ended with just one seat.
The BJP which had hoped to open its Lok Sabha account from the state this time fell by way side as the UDF dominated the scene.
Reacting to the huge blow dealt to the LDF, Vijayan said in a statement it was "unexpected", while state party secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan described the rout as a "temporary setback" and asserted the Left front would outlive such defeats.
Not seeing the writing on the wall, Vijayan had dismissed as speculation the exit poll projections, which had stated that the Left front would win only 4-5 seats.
Right since the counting of votes in the April 23 elections to the 20 seats began this morning, the Opposition UDF maintained a steady winning margin in 19 seats and breached the left citadels of Kasaragod, Kannur, Palakkad, Alathur, Idukki and Attingal.
As of midnight, result in Mavellikara constituency was yet to be declared by the Election Commission.
While the UDF candidates won with impressive margins, 10 of them crossing the one lakh mark, the Left had to be contended with the lone Alappuzha seat which it won with a meagre margin of about 9,000 votes.
Besides Gandhi, winners in the UDF camp included former Union minister and Thiruvananthapuram MP, Shashi Tharoor, who recorded a third straight win, K Muraleedharan (Vatakara), son of late chief minister K Karunakaran; IUML stalwart P K Kunhalikutty (Malappuram) and UDF convenor Benny Behanan (Chalakudy).
Remya Haridas, who won with a margin of over 1.5 lakh votes defeating two time MP P K Biju from the Alathur reserved constituency, will be the second Dalit woman MP from Kerala after Bhargavi Thankappan, who won on the CPI(M) ticket in 1971 from Adoor.
She is also the lone women candidate to have made it to the Lok Sabha from the southern state.
Prominent losers from the BJP-NDA stable include Union minister Alphons Kannamthanam, former Mizoram Governor Kummanam Rajashekharan and BJP General Secretary K Surendran.
LDF's six sitting MPs and five MLAs had to bite the dust, while the Congress headed UDF's eight incumbents and 3 MLAs came out with flying colours in the polls.
Two Malayalam film actors -- Innocent, who sought re-election from Chalakudy on CPI(M) ticket this time, and Suresh Gopi, a Rajya Sabha MP of the BJP, who tried his luck from Thrissur, bit the dust.
Congress' V K Sreekantan, who proved to be a dark horse and never featured in any exit polls, defeated two-time CPI(M) MP M B Rajesh by a lead of over 11,000 votes in Palakkad.
BJP was banking on the Sabarimala women entry issue to give it the elusive break in the southern state and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had mentioned about it in his campaign rallies, albeit in an indirect manner.
After the LDF government decided to implement the September 28 verdict of the supreme court allowing women of menstrual age to offer prayers at the hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa, protests had erupted in many parts of the state which was led by Hindu and right wing outfits and supported by BJP.
The saffron party had fielded Surendran in the Pathanamthitta constituency, which was the ground zero of the frenzied protest over the Sabarimala issue.
Anto Antony of Congress party won from Pathanamthitta defeating his rival Veena George of CPI(M) by a margin of over 44,000 votes. Surendran came a poor third.
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