By IANS,
Palai (Kottayam) : K.M. Mani, chief of the Kerala Congress (Mani), recorded his 12th consecutive victory from his home constituency of Palai by defeating the Left front candidate Mani C. Kappen by over 4,500 votes.
Palai it has seen just Mani as its legislator because right from the time the constituency came into being in 1965, it has been his pocketborough.
Even though he won for the first time in 1965, since no party could get a majority to form a government, that assembly was never constituted and instead, Mani when he won in 1967 from Palai, it was then his career as a legislator started.
And after that it has been records galore for the now 78-year-old veteran who was a minister for 20 years, besides being the only finance minister who has presented a record eight budgets and not to mention the only legislator who has represented one constituency for so many years.
In the 2006 polls, Mani defeated his nearest rival Kappen by 7,759 votes.
Mani’s biggest margin of victory was in the 1996 polls which he won by 23,790 votes and his least was in 1970 when he won by a mere 364 votes. Mani’s only son Jose K. Mani is the Lok Sabha member from Kottayam.