Puthuppally bypoll results: OC's charm intact, Chandy Oommen secures win

Kottayam: The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) swept the Puthuppally bypoll on Friday with Chandy Oommen winning the seat with a margin of 37,719 votes. With this, he crossed Oommen Chandy's highest margin in Puthuppally. 

While Chandy Oommen secured a total of 80,144 votes, LDF's Jaick C Thomas and NDA'a Lijin Lal secured 42,425 and 6,554 votes, respectively.

Oommen Chandy's largest victory margin in Puthuppally was in 2011 when he triumphed by a margin of 33,255 votes against Suja Susan George of the CPM.

The bypoll witnessed a 72.91 per cent voter turnout, lower than the 77.36 per cent polled in the state poll held in May 2021. In the 2021 election, 63,372 votes were cast in favour of the winner, Oommen Chandy. With 54,328 votes Jaick came second and N Hari of the BJP settled for a meagre 11,694 votes. The latest result shows severe erosion of votes of the LDF and the BJP.

Chandy Oommen thanks voters

"This is my father's 13th win. I'd like to express my sincere gratitude to all Puthuppally voters. I shall work for the betterment of all those who voted for me and against me. We shall work together for the development of Puthuppally," Chandy Oommen said.

He also thanked senior Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi, A K Antony, K C Venugopal, V D Satheesan, K Sudhakaran, Ramesh Chennithala and others for their help. The new Puthuppally MLA-designate also thanked the Muslim League and grassroots-level workers for their efforts.

He also warned the LDF against initiating violence against Congress workers in the constituency.

Counting of votes

The constituency, located in the southern Kottayam district, witnessed a war of words for the past few weeks as the September 5 by-election was a prestigious battle for both the ruling and opposition fronts in the state.

The counting of votes began around 8:10 am at the special counting station in the Baselius College after a slight delay. The postal votes and service ballots were counted first.

The total number of booths in Puthuppally was 182, and the counting of votes in the electronic voting machines were conducted in 13 rounds. As many as 32 members of the Central Armed Police Forces and a 12-member armed police battalion were deployed for the security of the counting station.

The bypoll, necessitated by the death of Congress leader and former chief minister Oommen Chandy who represented the constituency for a record 53 years, saw fierce campaigning by the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and opposition United Democratic Front (UDF). The Congress-led UDF fielded Oommen Chandy’s son Chandy Oommen while the CPM’s young leader Jaick C Thomas is the LDF candidate. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fielded Lijin Lal while in a first in the constituency, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also contested the election with Luke as its candidate. Three independents make the fray complete.

A total of 20 tables were set for the counting of votes. Of the 20 tables, 14 are meant for counting of votes cast on the EVMs and five are for postal votes. One table has been set for the counting of Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) votes.

The counting of votes began after the postal votes, service votes and the QR code of the ETPBS votes were handed over to the counting officials. EVM votes were counted in 13 rounds. Besides this, the slips from five selected- VVPAT machines were counted in Table No. 1.

Each counting table had one micro observer, one counting supervisor and one counting official. In addition to this, two micro observers were also present at the counting centre. One micro observer, one designated-assistant returning officer, one counting supervisor and two counting assistants were deployed for counting of service and ETPBS votes.