Left Democratic Front nominee Sebastian Paul won the Ernakulam Lok Sabha seat defeating Congressman M O John, the United Development Front candidate, by 22,134 votes.

The LDF thus wrested Ernakulam from the Congress. 

Paul got 335, 310 votes; John won 313,176 votes.

John lost six of the seven assembly segments that constitute the constituency.

In the 1999 general election, George Eden (Congress) polled 394,058 votes or 50.78 percent of the votes cast, defeating the LDF's Mani Vithayathil, who won 282,753 votes or 36.44 percent of the votes cast.

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Senior Congress leader K Karunakaran held Kerala Chief Minister A K Antony responsible for the party's defeat.

"I am not a bit surprised at the results. I am not a person who rejoices in the defeat of a Congress candidate. But for this defeat, the chief minister is solely responsible," Karunakaran, who had refused to campaign for John, said in Thiruvananthapuram.

"The leadership should now be ready to gauge the public sentiment and take lessons from the defeat," he said amid loud cheers from his supporters.