Heavy polling recorded in Piravam

Heavy polling was recorded at the crucial by elections at Piravam in the Ernakulum district of Kerala with serpentine queues forming since 7 am in fron of the polling booths.

The Piravam byelection is crucial for UDF as the front is surviving only on one member in the 140 member Assembly.

The first three hours recorded 36.3% polling. If the trend goes the percentage of voting may cross 90 %. Last year, the percentage was 79.12%. There are 1,83,493 voters at Piravam constituency.

The ruling United Democratic Front candidate Anoop Jacob cast his vote at Mannathur Athanickal School and the Opposition Left Democratic Front candidate M.J.Jacob at Manimalkkunnu College.

While largely peaceful, complaints were filed by UDF before Election Commission on faggot voting. Police took cases against MLAs Saju Paul, Suresh Kurup, oliyakode Krishnan Nair and Jose K Mani MP for violating Election Commission directive against outsiders entering the constituency.