Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 23: Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who made her poll debut from Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, was headed for a huge win having secured over four lakh votes.
Right from the start of counting, Priyanka Gandhi has been racing ahead without any problems. As per the Election Commission officials, she was now leading by over 4,25,782 votes. Her nearest rival, Sathyan Mokeri from the CPI was trailing, having polled 1,45,235 votes so far. The counting was continuing in the centres and the final count was awaited.
The BJP candidate, Navya Haridas, a young software engineer turned Kozhikode Corporation Councillor was fighting hard and the lead between the second-placed CPI veteran Sathyan Mokheri was also increasing.
Seeing the trend, the Congress workers are in a jubilant mood and have started to hit the streets at Wayanad and Palakkad. In the Palakkad Assembly constituency, state Youth Congress president Rahul Mamkoothathil after trailing initially has edged out his nearest rival-BJP candidate C. Krishnakumar and was leading by over 5,000 votes.
The contest at Palakkad is now about who will finish second as the difference between second-placed Krishnakumar and Congress turncoat candidate of the CPI(M)-led Left Independent Dr P. Sarin is around 10,000 votes. The BJP was expecting to open its account in the 140-member Kerala Legislative Assembly.
In the last Assembly elections, BJP candidate Metroman E. Sreedharan had come second trailing by over 4,000 votes. However if many thought that there prevailed a strong anti-incumbency factor against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left government, at Chelakkara Assembly constituency, their candidate U.R. Pradeep has already started celebrations as he is leading by over 10,291 votes.
With just two rounds left for counting to end, his victory is imminent. Till the counting of votes began, all three political fronts were hoping for the best and the million-dollar question was whether it would have something for each one of them to cheer about. Polling for the Wayanad Lok Sabha by-election and the Chelakkara Assembly constituencies was held on November 13, while for the Palakkad Assembly constituency, it was held on Wednesday.
All three by-elections are taking place after the sitting members of these vacated their seats. While Rahul Gandhi vacated Wayanand to retain Rae Bareli, Shafi Parambil of the Congress from Palakkad and State Minister of SC/ST K.Radhakrishnan vacated their winning seats at Palakkad and Chelakkara respectively.
IANS