New Delhi: Though Congress President Rahul Gandhi didn’t seem to have left a mark on the hearts of Amethi, as per the early trends; he surely impressed the voters of Wayanad in Kerala, which is second constituency from where the leader is contesting.  

Gandhi could be seen leading from Wayanad seat. In fact, the Congress party’s overall performance in the state has been impressive as per the early trends.

However, leader’s opponent Smriti Irani was leading by 2000 votes from Amethi seat.

The vote count for the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala began on Thursday morning, with initial trends showing that the Congress was ahead in 12 and the Left in seven seats.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Kummanem Rajasekheran was ahead of Congress' Shashi Tharoor, the sitting member, in Thiruvananthapuram.

The Left candidates were leading in seven places including Palakkad, Attingal, Kozhikode, Vadakara and Kannur.

In all there will be 14 rounds of counting, for which over 22,000 police officials are providing security across the state.

The southern state had witnessed a heavy polling of 77.68 per cent, the highest in 30 years, where the ruling CPI(M)-led LDF and the opposition Congress-headed UDF put up a fierce fight to garner maximum seats.
BJP also gave a tough time for the traditional fronts at least in three seats this time, riding on the Sabarimala women entry issue.

Counting began at 8 AM at 140 centres across 29 locations in the state.

Kasaragod District Collector has imposed prohibitory orders at Kalliyot and Periya in the district, where two Youth Congress activists had been hacked to death, allegedly by CPI(M) workers in this February.