Brisk polling in first 3 hrs of LS polls in Wayanad; 20.54 per cent turnout till 10.30 am

WAYANAD: Brisk polling was seen in the Wayanad Lok Sabha and the Chelakkara assembly seats in Kerala as they witnessed a turnout of 20.54 and 19.08 per cent, respectively, after the first three hours of voting on Wednesday.

The election process, held amidst tight security arrangements, was primarily incident-free except for electronic voting machine (EVM) breakdowns reported in some booths of Wayanad and Chelakkara.

The EVM breakdowns were reportedly quickly addressed by the election officials.

The voter turnout in Wayanad LS constituency was 13.7 per cent at 9.30 am, barely rose to 13.91 per cent at 10 am and then shot up to 20.54 at 10.30 am, according to figures released by the Election Commission (EC).

In the Chelakkara assembly bypoll, the voter turnout was 14.64 and 19.08 per cent at 9.30am and 10.10 am, respectively.

People started arriving early in the morning at the 1,354 polling booths in the hill constituency of Wayanad where there are over 14 lakh registered voters, according to the Election Commission figures.

Some arrived early, while others wanted to get it over with quickly before more people started reaching the polling stations, they told reporters.

It is a holiday in Wayanad LS and Chelakkara assembly constituencies on account of the bypolls.

The Wayanad constituency comprises seven assembly segments of Mananthavady (ST), Sulthan Bathery (ST), and Kalpetta in Wayanad district; Thiruvambady in Kozhikode district; and Eranad, Nilambur, and Wandoor in Malappuram district.

A bypoll was necessitated in the hill constituency after Rahul Gandhi, who won the Wayanad LS seat in the general elections held earlier this year, vacated it after he also won from the Rae Bareli constituency.

There are 16 candidates in the fray for the seat with Congress-led UDF's candidate and Rahul's sister Priyanka, who is making her electoral debut, CPI(M)-led LDF's Sathyan Mokeri and BJP-led NDA's Navya Haridas being the top contenders.

Polling in Wayanad commenced amidst tight security arrangements which included deployment of over 2,500 security personnel and live monitoring of the by-election process by an extensive webcasting system.

Voting for the Chelakkara assembly seat in Thrissur district of the state also saw people turning up early at the 177 polling stations in the constituency.

There are six candidates in the fray for the assembly seat, where a bypoll was necessitated after LDF's K Radhakrishnan -- who won from there in 2021 -- was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Alathur constituency by defeating UDF's Ramya Haridas who had won from there in 2019.

Haridas is now contesting from the Chelakkara assembly seat and is pitted against LDF's U R Pradeep and NDA's K Balakrishnan.

There were close to two lakh voters in the constituency during the 2021 assembly election in the state.

Voting began in Wayanad and Chelakkara after a mock poll was carried out by casting votes in favour of all candidates, including NOTA, whose names are there on an EVM.