Wayanad, Thursday, August 13, 2009: As anticipated, the UDF has won the Poothadi panchayat elections, its leader KK Vishwanathan was elected as the president, the elections were necessitated after, the CPM, which ruled the panchayat, had resigned from the governing council as it had lost majority. Vice –president VN Sashindran who will continue as the vice-president.

The Poothadi panchayat and its vice president VN Sashindran had hit headlines after he was abducted by CPM workers which included CPM Wayanad district secretary, the alleged abduction of Shashindran came a few days before the Left Democratic Front-ruled grama panchayat was to take up a no-confidence motion against the president.

In the 21-member panchayat, the LDF’s strength was reduced to 10 after two Janata Dal (Secular) members and Shashindran joined the Congress two months ago. The UDF now has 11 members.

The UDF had claimed that Shashindran was kidnapped by the LDF, fearing defeat in the governing body. The LDF countered that the Opposition was behind the incident as Shashindran had refused to side with the UDF when the motion was to come up for debate.

The vote of Mr Shashindran was crucial as the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) was having 11 members and UDF had 10, before he moved to the Congress. In this backdrop, Mr Shashindran was allegedly abducted.