The Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency witnessed the thrill and suspense of a T20 cricket match on the day of counting of votes on Friday. From start to finish, the two candidates — Mullappally Ramachandran of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and A.N. Shamseer of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) kept their voters on toes, maintaining a “win-win” situation.
In the beginning, fortune mostly favoured Mr. Shamseer as Mr. Ramachandran was nowhere in the picture till the counting of 31 per cent votes. Mr. Shamseer even scored a lead of 9,500 within just an hour of counting. Many a time, the steady rise in the votes sparked hopes among the LDF supporters, who were present in large numbers at the counting centres at JDT Islam Higher Secondary School.
However, the joy did not last long as the lead started falling after an hour. By 10.15 a.m, Mr. Ramachandran gained dominance over Mr. Shamseer by a marginal lead of 128. In UDF circles, the moment kindled new hopes. Thereafter, it was time for the UDF men to rejoice as Mr. Ramachandran continued to maintain the lead and reached a comfortable margin of 6,223 votes over his rival.
But, the delight lasted only a few minutes and his majority plunged to 321 votes by 10.50 a.m. The steep fall created ripples in the LDF circles and rekindled their hopes for a new leap. Within a few minutes, the lead again diminished to 190 for Mr. Ramachandran. And for Mr. Shamseer, the moment was unfolding hope as he regained the lead with just 13 votes. The win-win situation continued for nearly 10 minutes when both the candidates competed with their humble majority.
A steadiness in the lead became visible on completion of the counting of 80 per cent of the total votes. Mr. Ramachandran managed to improve the lead from just 48 votes to 3,306 in the last hours. While LDF supporters plunged into gloom, there were flashes of joy on the face of UDF workers. They started sending victory signs as the digital screens displayed the completion of 99 per cent of counting. The picture was complete when Mr. Ramachandran reached the JDT school premises to celebrate his victory in one of the most discussed Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala.
