The counting of votes cast in the bypolls for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat and the Palakkad and Chelakkara assembly constituencies in Kerala commenced at 8 am on Saturday.
The process began with the counting of postal ballots. The bypolls were held on different dates, with Wayanad and Chelakkara conducted on November 13 and Palakkad on November 20.
Originally, all three seats were supposed to have by-elections on November 13, but the one in Palakkad was postponed due to the Kalpathi Radhotsavam festival.
In Wayanad, the main contenders among the 16 candidates were Congress-led UDF’s Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, making her electoral debut, CPI(M)-led LDF’s Sathyan Mokeri, a seasoned politician, and BJP-headed NDA’s Navya Haridas.
Priyanka’s brother Rahul Gandhi vacated the seat, choosing to remain in Rae Bareli after winning both seats in this year’s elections. In Palakkad, the top contenders among 10 candidates were Rahul Mamkootathil from Congress-led UDF, C Krishnakumar from BJP-led NDA, and P Sarin from CPI(M)-led LDF.
This by-election was held because Congress’ Shafi Parambil resigned after getting elected to the Lok Sabha from Vadakara. Chelakkara saw a battle between six candidates, with LDF’s U R Pradeep, a former MLA, UDF’s ex-MP Ramya Haridas, and BJP’s K Balakrishnan as the main contenders.
The by-election here was needed after K Radhakrishnan moved to the Lok Sabha from Alathur.
