High-voltage triangular fight concludes with 70.51% voter turnout in Palakkad

Palakkad Assembly constituency election sees low voter turnout of 70.51%, with high-stakes triangular battle among UDF, LDF, and BJP.

The Palakkad Assembly constituency went to the polls on Wednesday to elect a replacement for Shafi Parambil, who vacated the seat after his election to the Lok Sabha from Vadakara in April this year.

Although polling started at 7 a.m. on an enthusiastic note, the 184 booths spread across Palakkad municipality and the panchayats of Mathur, Pirayiri and Kannadi witnessed an underwhelming voter turnout of 70.51% when the ballot closed at 6 p.m. Those already in queues were allowed to vote after the deadline. The polling was complete by 8 p.m. in all the booths, according to officials. The polling percentage was 75.2% in the previous elections.

United Democratic Front’s Rahul Mamkootathil, Left Democratic Front’s P. Sarin and BJP’s C. Krishnakumar fought it out vigorously in a high-stakes triangular battle that drew the attention of the entire State to Palakkad.

The poll percentage of 70.51 will change slightly as postal ballots are to be accepted until 7.59 a.m. on Saturday, the counting day.

The tepid electoral participation has bewildered all the three candidates and the fronts they represent, though all of them made tall claims.

Dr. Sarin exuded confidence, forecasting 70,000 votes for himself.

BJP president K. Surendran claimed that the UDF would be lowered to the third position. “After Vadakkunathan, now Visalakshi Sametha Viswanathan,” he wrote on his Facebook wall soon after the election was over, referring to a BJP win in Palakkad after Thrissur. Sree Visalakshi Sametha Viswanathaswamy Temple is the main temple of Tamil Brahmins at Kalpathy.