New Delhi: The counting for assembly seats that went to by-polls earlier this week in Uttarakhand, Kerala, and Odisha will take place today. These constituencies are Champawat, Thrikkakara, and Brajrajnagar respectively.
The poll counting will most importantly decide Uttarakhand’s sitting CM Pushkar Singh Dhami who had lost the Khatima constituency in the assembly polls that took place in March 2022 against Congress’ Bhuwan Chandra Kapri. For the by-polls that were held on May 31, Dhami contested from the Champawat constituency against Nirmala Gahotri of Congress.
Champawat District Election Officer Narendra Bhandari said that the preparations for the counting have been completed which is scheduled to start at 8 am at the Goralchod Ground.
Besides this, the counting of votes for the Brajrajnagar assembly in Odisha is also scheduled for today. The turnout for the seat was 71.90 percent. While there were 11 candidates who contested for the seat, the toughest competition was between BJD's Alaka Mohanty and BJP's Radharani Panda. Alaka Mohanty is the wife of Kishore Kumar Mohanty who won the polls in 2019. Meanwhile, Panda won the polls in 2014.
Meanwhile, the by-poll for the Thrikkakara assembly seat in the Ernakulam district of Kerala saw a voter turnout of 68.75 percent which was the lowest in the region’s history. The major competition in Thrikkakara is between Congress leader Uma Thomas and Dr. Jo Joseph of the CPI(M). Uma Thomas is the wife of P. T. Thomas, whose death led to the polls. The BJP, too, has fielded its candidate AN Radhakrishnan.