M A I N   N E W S

UDF sweeps Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, May 13
A tidal wave of anti-incumbency feelings has swept out the ruling Marxist-led Left Democratic Front in Kerala and brought back to power the Congress-led United Democratic Front with a clear two-thirds majority in the 140-member state assembly.

With all the results out, the eight-party UDF coalition has forged ahead in all districts to claim 99 seats, as against its present strength of 61 in the outgoing House. For the LDF, the crash was from 79 seats to 40, with a fall of 4.21 per cent in popular vote share from its 1996 figure of 46.03.The UDF increased its vote share from 44.84 per cent in 1996 to 49.05 now.

Immediately after the verdict of the people was known, Chief Minister E. K. Nayanar met Governor S.S. Kang and submitted the resignation of his government. He has been asked to continue in office till alternative arrangements are made.

Prominent among the winners were Congress Working Committee member and Opposition Leader A. K. Antony, the likely choice for chief ministership, LDF convener and CPM Politburo member V.S. Achuthanandan, Kerala Congress (Mani) leader K.M. Mani, JSS leader K.R. Gouri and CMP leader M.V. Raghavan.

The ministers pushed to the wayside by the UDF juggernaut were Mr P.J. Joseph (KC), Mr K.E. Ismail and Mr Krishnan Kaniyamparambil (both CPI) and Mr V.P. Ramakrishna Pillai (RSP).

Other LDF stalwarts defeated were Assembly Speaker and CPM leader M. Vijayakumar and his deputy C.A. Kurian (CPI), CITU state president P.K. Gurudasan and government chief whip T.K. Hamza. UNI