Ruling LDF candidate Mani C Kappen wins Kerala's Pala bypoll
Kottayam, Sept 27: The ruling CPI(M) led LDF on Friday won the byelection to Pala assembly constituency, wresting the seat from the opposition Congress led UDF.
LDF candidate Mani C Kappen defeated Jose Tom Pulikkunel of the opposition Congress-led UDF in a closely contested fight.
Kappen, leader of the Nationalist Congress Party, defeated Pulikkunel, a faction leader of the Kerala Congress (M) by 2,943 votes.
Pala was a bastion of the Congress-led UDF, held by veteran leader and former Finance Minister K M Mani for the last five decades.
The bypoll was necessitated due to the demise of Mani in April.
The win has come as a huge relief to the LDF after its rout in the Lok Sabha polls.
The bypoll was viewed as an acid test for UDF and the BJP headed NDA as a victory would have given boost to the three major combines prospects in the by-elections to five more assembly constituencies scheduled for October 21.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
