By Ashraf Padanna/Gulf Times Correspondent/Thiruvananthapuram

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy yesterday cleared a crucial test ahead of next year’s assembly elections which could ensure his return to power.
His Congress Party candidate K S Sabarinadhan won the Aruvikkara by-election by a margin of 10,128 votes defeating his 67-year-old Left rival, former assembly speaker M Vijaya Kumar.
The chief minister had said the outcome of this election would be a referendum on his government’s performance as well as on the opposition. The Left Democratic Front (LDF) accepted the challenge.
Sabarinadhan, 31, got 56,448 votes as against Kumar’s 46,320.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s O Rajagopal, 83, got 34,145 votes.
This is also sweet revenge for Sabarinadhan as the Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate had defeated his father, the later assembly speaker G Karthikeyan whose recent death necessitated the by-election, from Thiruvananthapuram North in 1987.
Karthikeyan represented the constituency for 24 years without a break and he won the seat in 2011 in a straight contest with the LDF.
While 1,430 voters pressed the None of the Above (NOTA) button on the electronic voting machine, K Das, the independent candidate fielded by controversial legislator P C George claiming the support of fringe groups like the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the Welfare Party of India (WPI) and others got just 1,197 votes.
Das’s defeat comes as a great relief for Chandy as it is generally perceived as an end of the road, at least for now, for George who misses no chance to attack the chief minister personally.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of jailed leader Abdunnasar Ma’dani bagged just 703 votes as the minority votes are believed to have swung towards the ruling front.
Sabarinadhan, who will be sworn in today, will be the baby of the assembly, replacing Hibi Eden, also of Congress, who is 33 years old. Chandy said Sabarinadhan had the support of all sections of people and hoped the new lawmaker would rise to the expectations of the young generation and continue the good work his father had started.
“This is also an endorsement of the government’s performance during the past four years,” Chandy told reporters. “We have not been defeated in any elections since 2006 and this is going to repeat (in the assembly elections next year).”
“It’s a huge lesson for the opposition indulging in negative politics,” he told reporters. “The people’s thumping support is a response to unfounded allegations of corruption as well.”