Two days ahead of the counting of votes for Puthupally Assembly by-elections, LDF and UDF expressed confidence in winning the seat. Puthupally constituency was a bastion of former CM Oommen Chandy from Congress who won the seat 12 times. He held the seat for a record 53 years ever since 1970. However, the bypoll was necessitated after the death of Oommen Chandy. A day after voting on Wednesday, Congress-led front remained confident of winning the seat while the CPI(M) led front claimed that the outcome of the poll will shock the other side. The counting of votes will take place on September 8.
Chandy Oommen, UDF candidate and Ooomen Chandy's son told the reporters that he would win the by-election. However, he did not comment on the margin of victory.
The ruling LDF leader and state Cooperation and Registration Minister V N Vasavan said the poll result will shock the UDF camp.
The Minister said he would make a precise prediction after gathering all the facts and information by Wednesday evening.
Further, the Minister as per PTI said, UDF accusations that several voters abstained from casting ballots because of delays at various polling places "may be an anticipatory bail as they might be afraid of what the result could be."
The Minister stated that everyone in the wait was given the chance to cast their ballot and that the state government had no influence over how the polling took place or how the officials operated.
He was reacting to Oommen's claims that there were delays in the voting process in several booths in the constituency that caused many voters to leave without exercising their right to vote on election day.
The Minister added that he had complained to the electoral authorities and was awaiting their response before determining the next step.
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