Kerala: Congress’ Chandy Oommen leads in Puthuppally

Puthupally (Kerala) [India], September 8 (ANI): Security has been beefed up as the counting process is underway at Kerala’s Puthuppally. The initial trend is in favour of the Congress candidate Chandy Oommen as he is leading from Puthuppally Assembly seat in Kerala, per the Election Commission.

The vote counting is being held for the bye-election of the Puthupally Assembly seat. The voting for the Puthupally was held on Tuesday, September 5. The counting process began at 8 am on Friday.

The death of former Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy necessitated the bypolls in Puthupally. In Puthupally, the main contest is between Congress and the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist). Congress has fielded Oommen Chandy’s son, Chandy Oomen, while the ruling party CPI (M) has fielded Jaick C. Thomas from this constituency.

Congress leader Oomen Chandy had served as the 10th chief minister of Kerala. He represented Puthuppally constituency as a member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the state from 1970 to 2023.

The Kerala Assembly has a total of 140 seats. Of these 98 seats belong to the ruling CPI (M) government and its alliance parties. While the Opposition holds 40 seats.

Notably, this is the first election between the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the opposition bloc, the newly formed Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). Apart from Puthupally, counting for the bye-elections is being held for the Dhupguri seat in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri, Dumri in Jharkhand and Uttarakhand Bageshwar, and Boxanagar and Dhanpur in Tripura and Ghosi in Uttar Pradesh.