Counting of votes for the bypoll to the Chengannur Assembly seat in Kerala is underway on Thursday with CPI-M candidate, Saji Cherian, taking a comfortable lead of over 4,000 votes after counting started for the third round.
In the 2016 assembly polls the Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate, K.K. Ramachandran Nair, had a lead of only 2,000 votes. The bypoll was necessitated following Nair's death in January
"The signs are good and victory is becoming clear because I have led in all the 14 booths in the first round which include strongholds of the Congress-led UDF," said Cherian.
"With the trend becoming more and more clear, Cherian appears to be firmly establishing the lead. The CPI-M candidate clearly has an upper hand in the Congress' strongholds," said senior Congress leader Rajmohan Unnithan.
Congress candidate D. Vijayakumar is in the second position followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party's P.S. Sreedharan Pillai.
"I had told soon after the elections that the Left has purchased votes, and all that can be seen now," said Pillai.
Voting for the seat took place on Monday.
--IANS
sg/in
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