The ruling CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) received a big boost with its candidate U R Pradeep winning the Chelakkara Assembly bypoll by 12,000 votes.

Pradeeep defeated Ramya Haridas of the Congress, which last won the seat in 1991.

This outcome is crucial for the CPI(M) as a slip would be construed as a fallout of the strong anti-incumbency against the eight-year-old Pinarayi Vijayan regime, an oft-repeated claim of the Opposition Congress in the run-up to the bypoll.

A win in Chelakkara is likely to help the state government counter the Opposition attacks while also helping the party leadership ward off criticism in organisational meetings and the CPI(M) Congress next year.

“It (the numbers) show that there is no anti-incumbency in Kerala and that the LDF will come back to power for the third consecutive time in 2026. It also shows that the people have rejected the UDF campaign,” CPI(M) central committee member and Lok Sabha MP, K Radhakrishnan said.

The win will also serve as a morale booster for the Vijayan government after its Lok Sabha drubbing, where it won only one of the state’s 20 parliamentary seats.

In the 2021 Assembly elections, Radhakrishnan had won the seat, 54.41% of the votes. The by-election was necessitated after Radhakrishnan, a Dalit face in CPI(M), successfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from Alathur, where he defeated Congress sitting MP Ramya Haridas.