Congress youth wing leader Chandy Oommen who emerged victorious by a massive margin in the bypolls held for the party's bastion in Puthuppally will take oath as MLA on Monday. The Puthuppally seat was previously held by his father and former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy ever since 1970s. In a statement shared by PTI, the Legislature Secretariat said, "Chandy Oommen's swearing-in would be held on September 11. He will take oath as the new legislator after the Question Hour session."
The statement said that the house proceedings could be seen live on the state-run Sabha TV.
Earlier, the assembly session was cut short due to the announcement of the bypoll. However, the assembly session is likely to be held as scheduled from Monday onward, sources told PTI.
On Friday, the counting of votes started for the constituency in the morning after a short delay. By afternoon, the Election Commission of India declared the results announcing 37-year-old Chandy Oommen as the winner with 80,144 votes while CPI(M)'s Jaick C Thomas secured 42,425 votes. Advocate Chandy Oommen won with a margin of 37,719 votes. The BJP candidate Ligin Lal secured 6,558 votes.
The September 5 bypoll was necessitated after the death of Oommen Chandy on July 18.
Congress, CPI(M) Youth Wings Clash After Puthuppally Bypoll Results
After the bypoll results were announced, a clash broke out between the youth wing members of Congress and the ruling CPI(M) in Manarcad area of Puthuppally on Friday. The students took to hurling stones at each other and this resulted in the injury of five persons. Of the five students, three were with Youth Congress and two were from CPI(M)'s youth wing DYFI.
The police then dispersed the crowd by resorting to lathi charge.
While the Youth Congress workers stated that stones were thrown at their protest, the DYFI members claimed that party workers' homes were attacked when the Congress' celebrating parade was hauled away.