TRIVANDRUM, 2 December 2003 — Over 75 percent of 117,742 voters exercised their franchise in the keenly watched by-election to the Tiruvalla assembly constituency in Kerala held yesterday, according to preliminary estimates. Police said the polling was by and large peaceful barring minor skirmishes between the United Democratic Front (UDF) and Left Democratic Front (LDF) activists at some polling stations.
The main candidates, Elizabeth Mammen of UDF, Dr. Varghese George of LDF and Bharatiya Janata Party’s Pratapa Chandra Varma, said the increased polling would help them win.
In the 2001 poll, won by Elizabeth’s late husband Mammen Mathai, the polling percentage in this traditional UDF constituency was 64.6. The increased polling, that too in a by-election, has left enough room for speculations which way the voters turn this time.
Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, the LDF’s deputy leader in the assembly, said he was confident of an LDF victory, as the constituency had favored its candidate when the turnout crossed 75 percent in the past. Long queues found in the morning and in the evening were of the working class, the traditional LDF supporters, he claimed.
Loyalists of the rebel Congress leader K. Karunakaran were also seen actively canvassing votes for the LDF candidate at almost all the 109 polling stations.
However, Mammen said the women voters turned out in large numbers would ensure her victory. “The trend was available in the early hours of polling and the result is a foregone conclusion,” she said.
