Polling gets underway for by-election in Kerala

Jun 02, 2012 |

Thiruvananthapuram

Tags:

Voting for the assembly by-election from Neyyattinkara segment near Thiruvananthapuram got underway on Saturday morning on a brisk note. Candidates of the ruling Congress-led UDF, CPI(M)-led LDF and BJP are engaged in three-cornered fight in the rural constituency, located about 15 km south-east of the capital.

According to official sources, impressive voter turnout was reported from most parts of the rural segment in the initial hours itself.

A total of 1.6 lakh voters are eligible to cast their ballots in the polls.

Though the main battle in Neyyatinkara is between R. Selvaraj (Congress) and F. Lawrence (CPI-M) of LDF, entry of former Union Minister and senior BJP leader O. Rajagopal has virtually turned the contest into a three-cornered one.

The by-poll is especially crucial for CPI-M as it is their sitting seat, vacated by R. Selvaraj, who has joined Congress and is now contesting on the 'hand' symbol. The poll also came at a time when CPI-M is on the defensive with several of its activists being arrested in connection with the murder of RMP leader T. P. Chandrasekharan at Onchiyam in Kozhikode on May 4.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/156947" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-4a34ff0a5e40266fa4438bffdcb41b4e" value="form-4a34ff0a5e40266fa4438bffdcb41b4e" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80412332" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>