The day of silent campaigning for Palakkad bypoll, Kerala, seemed anything but muted on Tuesday.
The countdown to Wednesday’s polling day has started with controversies galore.
The three political fronts — Left Democratic Front (LDF), National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and United Democratic Front (UDF) — on Tuesday claimed that victory will be theirs.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which had managed to keep its internal differences under wraps, is now grappling with renewed cracks.
Speculations are rife that six of the party’s 28 councillors, including those from the dissenting faction, are in favour of popular BJP spokesperson and State Committee member Sandeep Varier, who joined the Congress ahead of polls.
The BJP has fielded party state General Secretary and four-time councillor C Krishnakumar— a choice opposed by some during the early days of campaigning.
In 2021, its candidate E Sreedharan lost by just 3,859 votes to the popular and much-loved incumbent, Shafi Parambil.
Palakkad is one of the very few Assembly constituencies among the in the state, where the BJP finished second in the 2021 polls. The by-election campaign witnessed aggression from each side to outdo each other.
Over 1.90 lakh voters will cast their votes on Wednesday to elect their representative for the constituency, following a month-long high-energy campaign for the by-election.
The by-election became necessary after Congress leader Shafi Parambil resigned as MLA of the constituency upon his election to the Lok Sabha from Vadakara during the general elections.
Ten candidates are contesting, with the key contenders being Rahul Mamkootathil (Congress-led UDF), C Krishnakumar (BJP-led NDA), and P Sarin (CPI(M)-led LDF).
As per the final voter list, a total of 1,94,706 voters are eligible to vote, including 1,00,290 women voters.
There are 2,306 voters of above 85 years, 780 differently-abled voters, and four transgender voters. Additionally, 2,445 are first-time voters, and 229 are expatriates, the Election Commission said in a statement here.
Voting will take place from 7 am to 6 pm, with a mock poll starting at 5.30 am. The distribution of polling materials, including voting machines, was completed on Tuesday.
There are 184 polling stations in total, including four auxiliary booths, with 736 polling officers deployed. All booths have facilities such as ramps, toilets, and drinking water. the EC said.
One polling station and nine model polling booths will be supervised by women officers. Webcasting of the polling process will take place in all polling stations, it said.
The Election Commission has identified seven polling centres in three locations as sensitive and 58 booths as vulnerable. Enhanced security, involving central security forces and police, will be provided at these booths, the EC added.
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