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73.5% voter turnout in Puthupally bypoll
Brisk polling was seen in the early morning hours at several polling stations in the constituency as voters braved heavy rains to cast their ballots
Kochi: A voter turnout of 73.05% was recorded at the end of polling in the Puthuppally Assembly by-election in Kerala on Tuesday, the returning officer said.
“As of 6 pm, the turnout was just over 73% but there were still queues outside some polling stations. Those votes will have to be tallied along with 2491 postal votes. The final figure would be around 73%-74% and will be available by today morning,” Returning Officer Vinod Raj said. In 2021, the turnout in the constituency was 74.84%.
Brisk polling was seen in the early morning hours at several polling stations in the constituency as voters braved heavy rains to cast their ballots. The constituency has 1,76,000 registered voters and 182 polling stations. Four booths were termed as ‘sensitive’ and additional security was deployed there.
The by-election was necessitated by the death of veteran Congress leader, two-time CM and 12-time MLA Oommen Chandy who represented the seat uninterrupted since 1970. Chandy had succumbed to cancer at a private hospital in Bengaluru on July 18.
The Congress named his son Chandy Oommen as the candidate in the bypoll. Oommen is also a youth Congress leader who participated full-time last year in the Rahul Gandhi -led Bharat Jodo Yatra.
The CPM candidate was Jaick C Thomas, a DYFI leader from Puthuppally who contested unsuccessfully twice against Chandy in 2016 and 2021. In 2021 election, Thomas was able to bring down Chandy’s victory margin from over 27,000 votes to 9000 votes. The CPM-led LDF also controls six of the eight grama panchayats that make up the constituency.
The BJP, a minor player in the constituency, named it’s district president Ligin Lal as it’s candidate. In 2021, the party got less than 10% of the vote share.
On Tuesday, as polling entered the last hour, Chandy Oommen, the Congress candidate, alleged that the process was unusually slow at several booths, resulting in voters standing in long queues and even leaving without voting. “I have seen several elections in Puthuppally and in other constituencies. This has never happened before. (Polling) was slow in all eight panchayats, but in select booths. Everyone should be allowed to vote,” he told reporters.
CPM’s Thomas told reporters that he had the confidence that voters would make the right choice in creating a new Puthuppally. “It is a historic day for voters here to guide the constituency in a new direction,” he said.
In Puthuppally, among Hindus, who form over half of the population, Ezhava and Nair communities dominate. Christians comprise nearly 40% of the population with Orthodox and Jacobite Syrian Christian communities influential in the constituency. While Oommen belongs to the Orthodox faction, Thomas is a member of the Jacobite Christian community.
The result in Puthuppally will not have an impact on the state government as the CPM-led LDF with 99 seats has a brute majority in the 140-member Assembly. The Congress-led UDF has 41 seats.
Counting of votes will take place on September 8, Friday.
