Thrikkakara bypoll results: Low turnout of voters worry Congress, increase smile on CPI-M faces

Thrikkakara Assembly bypoll result: A last-minute final analysis of the voting statistics was being done by the rival political fronts and at the end of the day, the CPI-M leadership appeared to have more smiles on their faces. 

Kochi: With a day left for the outcome of the Thrikkakara Assembly bypoll on Friday, the heartbeats of both the Congress and the CPI-M leaderships in Kerala have increased. While many expected the turnout to be the highest ever since the constituency came into being in 2011, however, when the polling ended it turned out to be the lowest ever with 68.77 per cent.

On Wednesday, a last-minute final analysis of the voting statistics was being done by the rival political fronts and at the end of the day, the CPI-M leadership appeared to have more smiles on their faces. Analysis showed that while the turnout in the Left strongholds was above 75 per cent, in areas where Congress has an upper hand the turnout was less than 60 per cent.

The election became a necessity after the sudden demise of two times Thrikkakara`s Congress legislator PT Thomas in December last year.

And even though the Congress perhaps for the first time without any internal squabbles named the widow of Thomas -- Uma Thomas as their candidate and was the first to hit the campaign trail, the CPI-M after a while decided to go for a non-political Catholic Christian candidate, an interventional cardiologist -- Joe Joseph, while the BJP decided to field their veteran -- AN Radhakrishnan.

The edge in the campaign trail that the Congress candidate had was almost wiped out with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan leading the campaign from the front, Not to be left out around 75 of their legislators and the entire Vijayan cabinet was stay put at Thrikkakara, till the last day of campaign.