Around 6.34 per cent polling was reported till 8 am for the Palakkad Assembly constituency by-poll, on Wednesday.
Long queues with a large number of women were seen in almost all the booths in the morning.
BJP candidate C Krishnakumar cast his vote at Ayyapuram Kalpathy LP School booth number 25, while LDF candidate P Sareen, standing in line at Manappully True line public school, was late due to VVPAT complaint, so Sareen left from the booth to canvas votes from other booths.
Sareen informed that he would cast his vote in the afternoon. Palakkad MP, Shafiparambil and former MP N N Krishnadas cast their votes in the first hour.
As many as 1,94,706 voters including 1,00,290 women, 4 transgenders voters, 2445 new voters (aged 18-19) and 2306 old aged voters (85 plus) are eligible to register their democratic choice in the triangular contest among the United Democratic Front (UDF), Left Democratic Front (LDF) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the Palakkad assembly by-election.
Ten candidates including Youth Congress State President Rahul Mammkootathil, former digital media cell convenor of KPCC, Dr P Sarin , who recently quit Congress and joined CPI(M), and BJP State General secretary K Krishna Kumar were contesting for UDF, LDF and BJP respectively.
The voters came under Palakkad Municipal corporation and three panchayats Mathur, Kannadi and Pirayiri. Heavy security has been arranged in vulnerable booths and a large police force was deployed to maintain law and order.
The Palakkad by-election which was scheduled to take place on November 13 along with Wayanad Lok Sabha and Chelakkara assembly by elections, was postponed to November 20 due to Kalpathi Ratholsavam.
In the 2021 Assembly elections, BJP’s candidate Metroman E Sreedharan lost to Shafi Parambil by 3850 votes. Dr P Sarin, who quit congress in protest against the party decision to field Rahul Mamkootathil and joined CPI(M) and they field him as an independent candidate with a symbol of stethoscope in this election.
Meanwhile, former BJP spokesperson Sandeep G Varier quit BJP and joined the Congress a few days back and canvassed support for the LDF here.
