Kottayam: As counting for the by-poll in Kerala's Puthupally progresses, UDF's Chandy Oommen's lead over his nearest rival has crossed 33,000 votes.
Vote counting for the constituency, for which polling took place on September 5, started this morning under heavy security.
Postal ballots were the first to be counted, followed by those from the elderly and finally the electronic voting machines. Chandy Oommen, a candidate for Congress, got off to a fast start, with his lead quickly crossing 1,500.
As soon as the first trend was announced, the Congress-led UDF supporters broke into a huge applause outside the counting centre at the Kottayam Baselius College.
Approximately 72.86 per cent of the eligible 1,76,412 electorate exercised their franchise for the bypoll necessitated after the demise of sitting Congress legislator- Oommen Chandy, a two-time former Chief Minister and who represented the constituency from 1970 for a record-breaking 53 years.
In the fray are Chandy's son Chandy Oommen for the Congress, CPI(M)'s Jaick C.Thomas in his third outing in the constituency, BJP's Lijin Lal andf our others.
In the 2021 Assembly polls, Chandy defeated Thomas by 9,044 votes.
While Chandy Oommen is reportedly catching up with the trends from his ancestral home in Puthuppally, Thomas was at the district office of the CPI(M) along with the campaign's leader- State Minister for Cooperation V.N.Vasavan.