Kerala assembly election results: New faces, key upsets mark women's performance

Eleven women won seats in the state legislative assembly, six of them first-timers and four returning for a second term. Geetha Gopi of CPI, elected from Nattika for the third time, is the most experienced among them. All eleven won by comfortable margins.Uma Thomas of Congress recorded the highest victory margin among women MLAs, winning by 50,211 votes. At the other end, K A Thulasi of the Congress won the Kongad seat by the narrowest margin of 3,706 votes.Two victories stood out for their symbolic weight, both came against sitting male ministers. Usha Vijayan defeated O R Kelu and Vidya Balakrishnan unseated A K Saseendran, each winning by over 10,000 votes.Fathima Tahaliya of IUML added another notable scalp, defeating LDF convenor T.P. Ramakrishnan in Perambra. Only K.A. Thulasi and Shanimol Usman faced female opponents; the remaining nine won against male candidates.Senior Congress leader Bindu Krishna, who had contested two assembly elections and one Lok Sabha election without a win, finally broke through, defeating CPM's S Jayamohan by a margin of 16,830 votes.The election also saw several prominent women candidates fall. On LDF side, sitting ministers R Bindu, Veena George and J Chinchurani lost their seats, as did former health minister K K Shylaja, senior leader U Prathibha and P K Shyamala, wife of CPM state secretary M V Govindan. Former CPM MLA Aisha Potty, contesting this time on a Congress ticket and BJP leader Sobha Surendran also failed to make it through.