Ex-Min Kumar alleges UDF-BJP deal behind his defeat in Pathanapuram

Former minister and Kerala Congress B leader K B Ganesh Kumar on Sunday alleged that a political deal between the UDF and BJP led to his defeat in the Pathanapuram constituency in the recently held Assembly elections.

Former minister and Kerala Congress (B) leader K B Ganesh Kumar on Sunday alleged that a political deal between the UDF and BJP led to his defeat in the Pathanapuram constituency in the recently held Assembly elections. Kumar, who had been representing Pathanapuram since 2001, lost to Congress candidate Jyothi Kumar Chamakkala in the polls. In a Facebook post, Kumar pointed to the decline in BJP-led NDA votes in the constituency and claimed it indicated a tactical understanding between the Congress-led UDF and the BJP against the LDF. He said the BJP had secured 11,700 votes in the 2016 Assembly election and 12,398 votes in the 2021 polls. ''In the 2025 local body elections, the BJP alone received around 23,000 votes from the constituency. But this time, when the BJP-led NDA won three seats in the state, it got only 7,031 votes in Pathanapuram,'' he said. Kumar also claimed that in the 2026 Assembly election, the BJP gave the Pathanapuram seat to its ally Twenty20, which had little presence in the constituency. He alleged that in several panchayat wards where the BJP had earlier won in local body polls, the NDA failed to secure even double-digit votes in the Assembly election. ''From this itself, the matter is clear. Even in the campaign field, the NDA was not active. As part of the UDF–BJP understanding, both sides worked against the LDF in Pathanapuram,'' he alleged. Kumar further claimed that similar arrangements existed in various parts of the state and said vote shares reflected this trend. He also pointed out that in all three constituencies won by the BJP in the state, the LDF finished second while the Congress was pushed to third place. ''In those constituencies, the Congress did not even get the votes it had secured in the previous Lok Sabha and local body elections,'' he alleged. Kumar was the transport minister in the previous LDF government. The LDF won 35 seats in the 140-member Assembly, while Kerala Congress (B) failed to win any seat. The Congress-led UDF secured 102 seats and is set to form the next government in the state. Meanwhile, Congress leader Jyothi Kumar Chamakkala rejected Kumar's allegations. Chamakkala said Kumar was ridiculing voters by making such claims after his electoral defeat. He alleged that Kumar was trying to hide behind conspiracy theories instead of accepting the people's verdict. He also claimed that even some individuals close to Kumar, including two members of his inner circle, had voted against him in the election. Chamakkala acknowledged that the BJP had witnessed a significant drop in votes in the constituency and said the reason was that the saffron party had allotted the seat to its ally Twenty20. However, he asked Kumar to also examine the decline in his own vote share over the years. ''In 2016, Kumar received 75,000 votes, which reduced to 67,000 in 2021. In 2026, it further came down to 60,000 votes. In 10 years, Kumar's votes reduced by 15,000,'' he said. Chamakkala said Kumar's vote share had declined from 56 per cent to 44 per cent during the same period. ''When speaking about the BJP's vote, he should first explain how his own votes declined over the last 10 years,'' he said. ''The UDF had a 38 per cent vote share in 2016, which increased to 39 per cent in 2021. Now we have nearly 50 per cent of the votes. This means we increased our vote share by 15 per cent in the last 10 years,'' he added.