Headlines
Ravi, Wahab, Ragesh win Rajya Sabha poll from Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram, April 20
Senior Congress
leader Vayalar Ravi, IUML nominee P.V. Abdul Wahab and CPI-M youth
leader K.K. Ragesh won the Rajya Sabha elections from Kerala amid
speculation of cross voting in the ruling Congress-led UDF.
Ravi secured 37 votes, Wahab 36 and Ragesh got 37.
The
Left opposition had fielded a dummy candidate in K. Rajan, a senior CPI
leader, to capitalise on any possible cross voting. Rajan ended up with
29 votes.
The voting began on Monday morning at 9 a.m. and ended
at around 12.30 p.m. after all the 139 elected members of the Kerala
Legislative assembly had cast their votes.
Counting of votes began at 5 p.m.
One assembly seat is vacant following the death of speaker G. Karthikeyan.
The
UDF has 73 members while the Left opposition has 65 members. Estranged
former minister K.B.Ganesh Kumar, whose party - Kerala Congress (
Pillai) - is no longer a UDF ally, voted with the Left Front taking
their tally to 66.
For Ravi who turns 78 in June, this is the
fourth term and the third consecutive one in the upper house, while for
64-year-old Wahab, a businessman-turned-politician, it's his second term
after his first term in 2004.
For 44-year-old Ragesh, this is his first victory in an election.
While
many thought former Kerala government chief whip P.C. George who was
stripped of the post last week for party indiscipline would vote for the
Left, that did not happen.
"Probably this is my last vote for
the UDF and from now on I don't think I can cast my vote for such a
corrupt group," said George, who has since been removed as vice-chairman
of the Kerala Congress (Mani).
Kumar, however, said that he did what his party asked (to vote for the Left candidates).
"The
UDF is a group which is soft on the corrupt and the whistle-blowers are
taken to task. After booting me and my party from the UDF, what's the
point in asking for my vote. The UDF now stands for 'utilising democracy
for fraud'," said Kumar.