Kerala bypoll: After Wayanad and Chelakkara, Palakkad too witnesses drop in voter turnout

The voter turnout at the tightly fought Palakkad assembly by-poll in Kerala on Wednesday remained low compared to the previous elections, similar to that of the Wayanad Lok Sabha and Chelakkara assembly by-polls.

The drop in voter turnouts in by-polls, despite intense campaigning by the major political parties, is widely interpreted as public resentment towards by-polls caused by the resignation of sitting MP and MLAs..

Despite a strong triangular fight at Palakkad the voter turnout was at 70.5 percent by 7 pm. Voting was progressing at some booths till late in the evening. The voter turnout of Palakkad was 75.44 percent in 2021 and 77.25 percent in 2016.

All the three by-polls in Kerala were due to resignation of sitting MP and MLAs. It included Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's resignation from Wayanad to retain the Raebareli Lok Sabha seat. Even as Congress top brass came down to Wayanad to campaign for Priyanka Gandhi, the voter turnout fell to 64.72 percent from 73.57 percent in the previous election.

Chelakkara, which went to the by-poll as sitting MLA K Radhakrishnan of CPM was elected to the Lok Sabha, had also witnessed a four percent drop in voter turnout in the by-poll.

Palakkad went to the by-poll as three time sitting MLA Shafi Parambil of the Congress got elected to the Lok Sabha.

BJP is pinning high hopes of making its presence in Kerala assembly as it came second in last two assembly polls. The brisk polling in municipal areas of Palakkad further brightened BJP's hopes as BJP is ruling the municipality and party candidate C Krishnakumar is a prominent leader of Palakkad.

Congress candidate Rahul Mamkoottathil is pinning hopes of retaining the party's sitting seat by taking advantage of anti-incumbency against the left-front government, whereas Congress rebel turned left-front candidate Dr P Sarin was also expressing high hopes.

The polling was low till afternoon and towards evening the voter turnout went up. The polling progressed under tight police vigil as the CPM alleged that around 2,700 double voters of BJP and Congress were present in the constituency and they would not be allowed to vote. BJP district president K M Haridas, who was found to be having double votes, did not cast his vote on Wednesday.