All eyes on Puthuppally bypoll result

Kottayam: The political parties, their loyalists and citizens are keenly awaiting the result of the recently held assembly bypoll at Puthuppally in Kerala’s Kottayam district. The wait will soon end and the counting of the votes will start on Friday at 8:30 am. 

The authorities concerned have made the necessary arrangements and counting will be held on 20 tables. Votes polled through electronic voting machines, postal votes, and services will be counted. 

The results will be available on the Election Commission’s website, Voter Helpline mobile app, and web application Result Trend TV. 

In the present composition of the 2021 Kerala Assembly with a total of 140 seats, the ruling LDF has 99, and UDF has 40 with one seat vacant- Puthuppally. 

The bypoll was necessitated by the death of Oommen Chandy, a former Chief Minister and Congress stalwart who represented the seat for a record 53 years.

A day after polling concluded, the ruling LDF and the opposition UDF started calculating the voting pattern with the Congress-led front saying it was confident of a win, while the CPM-led front claimed that the poll outcome would shock the other side.

UDF candidate and son of late Oommen Chandy, Chandy Oommen, told reporters he will win the by-election, but did not comment on what the margin of victory would be.

On the other side, state Cooperation and Registration Minister V N Vasavan -- also the MLA from Ettumanoor assembly constituency here -- said he was confident that the poll result "will create a shock in the UDF camp".

The number of voters who turned up in the by-election for the Puthuppally Assembly seat in Kottayam district was slightly lesser than the around 74 per cent turnout seen in 2021 during the State assembly polls.

72.86 per cent of the total registered 1,76,412 voters had exercised their franchise, according to the Chief Electoral Officer. This was around a couple of per cent less than the around 74 per cent turnout seen in 2021.

With PTI  inputs