Kerala Assembly Elections 2021 | Check out the smallest and biggest victory margins

In Kerala, the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) retained power -- breaking the four-decade trend of no incumbent getting re-elected. (Representative image)

The two prominent figures in the incumbent Kerala government, state’s Health Minister KK Shailaja and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, won with the largest victory margin in the recently declared assembly election results.

KK Shailaja was a Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate from Mattannur, contesting against Illikkal Augusthy of Revolutionary Socialist Party of Kerala (Bolshevik), triumphed by a record margin of 60,963 votes, the biggest victory in the state. She bagged 96,129 votes or nearly 62 percent of the total votes polled in the constituency.

Kerala Congress leader PJ Joseph in the 2016 assembly elections had recorded the biggest win before this, with a margin of 45,587 votes. CM Vijayan’s victory was the second-largest this election, with a margin of 50,123 votes against Congress candidate C Raghunathan in the Dharmadam constituency.

The majority of the wins have come in the margin of 10,000 to 20,000 votes, while only 11 seats witnessed a close contest, winning with a margin of less than 2,000 votes.

In all, six constituencies have registered wins with a margin of less than 1,000 votes. Indian Union Muslim League’s Najeeb Kanthapuram in the Perinthalmanna constituency faced the narrowest escape against an independent candidate KPM Musthafa, winning with a difference of mere 38 votes, the lowest margin in the state. The lowest victory margin in 2016 was 43 votes.

K Surendran, BJP state president, lost to AKM Ashraf of the IUML in Manjeshwaram constituency by just 745 votes. E Sreedharan, another prominent candidate of the BJP, popularly known as the Metro Man, who contested from the Palakkad constituency, fell short of his victory by 3,859 votes, against Shafi Parambil of the Congress.