Malappuram, June 23 (UNI) Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate Aryadan Shoukath wrested the Nilambur Assembly constituency from the ruling CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) by a margin of 11,077 votes in the by-elections on Monday.
Shoukath secured 77,737 votes, LDF's M Swaraj 66,660, Independent and former Nilambur MLA PV Anvar 19,760 and BJP-led NDA's Adv Mohan George 8,648 votes, respectively.
Ten contenders are in the fray with 2,32,057 voters in the final list. A turnout of 75.27 per cent was recorded on June 19 . As many as 1,74,667 people reached the polling booth and exercised their right to vote. Out of 1,13,299 male voters, 81,007, out of 1,18,750 female voters, 93,658 and two out of eight transgenders exercised their right to vote.
UDF secured leads in Nilambur municipality by 3,967 votes and in seven panchayats -- Vazhikadavu-1,829 votes, Moothedam (2,067 votes), Edakkara (1170) , Pothukallu (307), Chungathara (1,287) and Amarambalam 704 votes. The LDF secured lead of 118 votes from only Karulai panchayat.
In the 2021 Nilambur assembly election, LDF-backed Independent PV Anvar (secured 81,227 votes) defeated VV Prakash of UDF (polled 78,527 votes). But in the 2025 election, the UDF showed a mere decrease of vote share of 44.51 per cent in the 2025 election from 45.34 (2021 election). But the LDF vote share decreased to 38.16 (2025 election) from 46.90 (2021 election) in this election. The NDA vote share remains almost the same as in 2021. In 2025 it recorded 4.95 vote share; it was 4.96 in the 2021.
The Nilambur by-election was necessitated following the resignation of Left Democratic Front (LDF) backed Independent MLA PV Anvar in January 2024. He defected from LDF and joined All India Trinamool Congress and became the state convenor of AITC.
LDF-backed Independent MLA Anvar has been representing Nilambur assembly constituency for the last 8.5 years (2016- 2024) .
In the 2016 assembly elections, LDF-backed Independent PV Anvar defeated INC's Aryadan Shoukath by a margin of 11,504 votes from Nilambur constituency on Aryadan Shoukath maiden electioneering to Assembly elections, after his father Aryadan Muhammed won from Nilambur constituency six times consecutively from 1987 to 2011.
In the 2021 assembly elections, LDF-backed Independent candidate PV Anvar defeated Indian National Congress (INC) candidate V V Prakash by a margin of 2700-odd votes.
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