Congress-led UDF candidate Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was in the lead by over 86,000 votes after two hours of counting of votes polled in the Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll in Kerala on Saturday, according to the Election Commission.
According to figures released by the EC at around 9.50 am, Priyanka received 86,303 votes with LDF's Sathyan Mokeri at second with 26,245 and BJP's Navya Haridas third with 16,223.
The counting of votes polled commenced at 8 am with postal ballots being taken up first. The strong rooms, where the EVMs were kept, were opened more than an hour before counting began.
Of the 16 candidates who contested, the main contenders are Priyanka, who is making her electoral debut, CPI(M)-led LDF's Sathyan Mokeri, a political veteran, and BJP-headed NDA's Navya Haridas.
Priyanka in lead in early trends
The initial trend emerging from the counting of ballots in the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala on Saturday saw Congress-led UDF candidate Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the lead, according to TV channel reports with no word yet from the Election Commission.
The counting of votes polled commenced at 8 am with postal ballots being taken up first.
Counting of votes underway
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.
With inputs from PTI