Kerala bypolls: Counting of votes begins in Wayanad, Palakkad and Chelakkara

Wayanad/Palakkad/Thrissur (Kerala): 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 counting of votes began with the postal ballots being taken up first.

Bypolls were held in Wayanad Lok Sabha and Chelakkara assembly constituencies on November 13 and in Palakkad on November 20.

Initially the bypolls were to be held in all three seats on November 13, but the by-election in Palakkad was postponed to November 20 due to the Kalpathi Radhotsavam festival.

In Wayanad, of the 16 candidates who contested, the main contenders are Congress-led UDF's Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is making her electoral debut, CPI(M)-led LDF's Sathyan Mokeri, a political veteran, and BJP-headed NDA's Navya Haridas.

Priyanka will be hoping to succeed her brother Rahul Gandhi, who vacated the seat following his decision to remain in the Rae Bareli constituency after winning the two seats in this year's elections. He had won from here in 2019 and his resignation necessitated the bypoll.

In the Palakkad bypoll, 10 candidates contested, with the top contenders being Rahul Mamkootathil from the Congress-led UDF, C Krishnakumar from the BJP-led NDA, and P Sarin from the CPI(M)-led LDF.

The by-election was held following the resignation of Congress' Shafi Parambil, who vacated the seat after being elected to the Lok Sabha from Vadakara in the general election this year.

There were six candidates in the bypolls for the Chelakkara assembly constituency, but the fight was between LDF's U R Pradeep, a former MLA, ex-MP Ramya Haridas of UDF and BJP's K Balakrishnan.

The by-election in Chelakkara was necessitated after K Radhakrishnan was elected to the Lok Sabha from Alathur.