Drop in polling won't affect Priyanka's winning margin: K C Venugopal

Thiruvananthapuram: The drop in polling percentage in the Wayanad Lok Sabha by-election would not affect the margin the Congress expects for its candidate Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal said on Thursday.

The Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, where Priyanka made her electoral debut, saw a voter turnout of around 65 per cent during the bypoll on Wednesday.

This was a decline from the nearly 74 per cent turnout recorded in the April polls, when her brother and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi contested from the hill constituency.

Responding to queries on this, Venugopal said, "According to our initial assessment, the low polling percentage would not affect the margin we expect for Priyanka-ji." He said that the AICC general secretary would win with a thumping majority but noted that the party and the UDF would examine the reasons behind the drop in polling percentage.

"We are holding a meeting at the panchayat level with booth agents to study the reasons for the decline in poll percentage," Venugopal said.

The final voter turnout percentage released by the Election Commission (EC) at close to 9 pm on Wednesday was 64.72 per cent.

According to the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, V D Satheesan, the lower turnout is due to a lack of enthusiasm among voters in areas dominated by the CPI(M)-led LDF.

Meanwhile, the LDF and BJP-led NDA rejected the UDF's claim and argued that the reduced voter turnout was due to people not turning up to vote in areas dominated by the Congress and its allies.

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. Besides Priyanka, the top contenders are CPI(M)-led LDF's Sathyan Mokeri and BJP-led NDA's Navya Haridas.