UDF Confident of Victory in Puthuppally Assembly By-Election; LDF Says Results Will “Shock” Opposition

The Puthuppally assembly by-election polls were completed on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, the ruling LDF and the opposition UDF began analyzing the voting patterns. The Congress-led front declared itself confident of victory, while the CPI(M)-led front predicted that the other side would be shocked by the poll results.

Chandy Oommen, a candidate for the UDF and the son of the late Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, assured reporters he will win the by-election but would not say by how much.

On the other hand, V N Vasavan, the state’s minister of cooperation and registration and an MLA from this region’s Ettumanoor assembly district, expressed confidence that the election results “will create a shock in the UDF camp.”

After gathering all the facts and information, he said he would make a precise forecast by this evening.

According to the minister, UDF accusations that several voters abstained from casting ballots because of delays at various polling places “may be an anticipatory bail as they might be afraid of what the result could be.”

On September 8, a vote count will be place.

The minister stated that everyone in the line was given the chance to cast their ballot and that the state government had no influence over how the polling places or their staff operated.

He was reacting to Oommen’s claims that there were delays in the voting process in several booths in the constituency that caused many voters to leave without exercising their right to vote today as well as on election day.

The Minister said that he had complained to the electoral authorities and was awaiting their answer before determining the next step.

Oommen also said that when he confronted one of the poll workers at one of these booths, a group of seven to eight individuals intervened and acted to defend the official.

Additionally, he said that throughout the years, his father and his family had been targets of a manhunt and that efforts had been undertaken to damage their image in relation to everything they had done.

“Therefore, the populace will respond to it. I think the people have had their say. I’ll prevail, he said.

Oommen just repeated, “I will win,” when asked what the margin of victory would be.

According to the district administration, 72.91 percent of the more than 1.76 lakh eligible voters have cast ballots as of the end of voting on Tuesday.

According to official statistics, 1,28,624 voters—64,084 males, 64,538 women, and two transgender people—had cast ballots as of 6 p.m. out of the total 1,76,417 voters.

The LDF was represented by DYFI leader Jaick C. Thomas, while the BJP was represented by district president G. Lijinlal.

After Chandy passed away on July 18, the seat in the assembly became vacant. Chandy had served the Kottayam district as its representative for more than 50 years without taking a vacation.

The governing LDF now has 99 seats in the 140-member Kerala Assembly, followed by the UDF with 40 seats and one open Puthuppally assembly seat.