Kerala rejects 'family politics'

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For the first time in Kerala''s electoral history, Congress has drawn blank in the Lok Sabha polls.<br /><br />The party nominees received humiliating defeats in all the 17 seats the party contested.<br /><br />Those who were humbled include five sitting MPs in the dissolved Lok Sabha and high profile candidates like senior leader Karunakaran''s daughter Padmaja Venugopal.<br /><br />The party could win one seat even in 1967 which was the worst ever performance of the Congress till date. <br /><br />On a day of total rout, the three-year-old A K Antony government received a rude shock with state Electricity Minister K Muraleedharan losing the Wadakkachnerry Assembly seat in a grimly fought by-election.<br /><br />A C Moideen of CPI (M) humbled Karunakaran''s son by a margin of 3,715 votes in the UDF bastion.<br /><br />Murleedharan was inducted into the Antony Cabinet three months back as part of a patch up scheme with his <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">bete noire</span> Karunakaran.</div> </div>