Wayanad: Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in her maiden electoral contest in Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll, who took an early lead in the counting that began at 8 am, consolidated in further rounds.
At the time of updating this copy, she had managed to widen her lead by 1,57,472 votes. She had bagged 2,39,554 of 3,73,424 votes counted so far at 11 am. That accounted for 64.15 percent.
According to the Election Commission of India's website, Priyanka had polled 1,21,476 votes at 10 am garnering a seemingly unassailable lead of 85,533 votes against CPI's Sathyan Mokeri. Election officials began counting postal votes in the presence of authorised agents of the candidates at 8 am. The counting of EVM votes is underway.
Wayanad which has been a UDF bastion had prompted the party to claim that their leader will manage a majority of over 4 lakh votes. The early leads suggest the lead may be massive and it remains to be seen whether it would surpass Rahul's victory margin of over 3.5 lakh votes.
The constituency, which Rahul Gandhi won earlier this year, was vacated by him following his success in the Rae Bareli LS seat also, necessitating a bypoll in Wayanad.
The turnout was 64.71 percent as against the 73.57 percent polling reported in April. Both the fronts have claimed that the decrease in polling will not have any bearing on the prospects of their candidate but their rivals in the contest.
A total of 16 candidates, including Priyanka, CPI's Sathyan Mokeri and BJP's Navya Haridas, were in fray for the support of the over 14 lakh voters in the Wayanad. The CPI and the BJP were hoping to wrest the hill constituency from the grand old party.
