"Expected": Congress leader AK Antony after Chandy Oommen wins Puthupally Assembly bypoll

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], September 8 : After Congress registered a win in the Assembly bypolls of Puthupally, defeating CPI(M) candidate, senior leader of the grand old party AK Antony on Friday said that the victory was "expected" and that the result is a punishment for those who haunted party candidate Chandy Oommen's father for years. 
"It was expected. Puthupally was waiting to punish those people who haunted Ommen Chandy for years on the basis of baseless allegations. This is a punishment by the people's court," the former Union Minister said. 
He said that there is an anti-incumbency in Kerala against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan-led government.  
UDF candidate Chandy Oommen, son of former state Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, won the Puthupally bypoll by a margin of 37,719 votes, defeating both, LDF's Jaick C Thomas and Lijin Lal, who contested under the NDA banner. 
Earlier in the day, Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal said that the people of Puthuppally have given the verdict against the Chief Minister's arrogance.
"The victory in Puthupally is the victory of Congress unity," KC Venugopal said, adding, that Pudupally is the people's verdict against the Chief Minister's arrogance."
The bypoll election was necessitated for the Puthuppally Assembly seat, because of the death of Oommen Chandy. He represented the Puthuppally seat 12 times in a row from 1970 to 2023.