The Piravom Assembly constituency which witnessed a keen three-cornered contest saw a voter turnout of 72.46% when polling ended at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
Though voting started on a tepid note in the morning, it gained momentum by noon. In fact, most booths did not have long queues, as auxiliary booths had been readied in view of the COVID-19 situation. Interestingly, members of the Haritha Karma Sena and civil defence volunteers gave guidance to voters at several booths.
Meanwhile, voting was peaceful in the five sensitive booths at Irumpanam. There was a huge turnout at these booths, which had a heavy presence of Central forces.
Sitting MLA and Kerala Congress (Jacob) leader Anoop Jacob is the UDF candidate in Piravom, while Sindhumol Jacob of the Kerala Congress (M) is the LDF candidate. M. Ashish is the NDA candidate. Anoop Jacob had won the seat in 2016 by a margin of 6,195 votes.
At the end of polling, both LDF and UDF workers remained hopeful of victory. Mr. Jacob said he was quite confident of winning the seat by a handsome majority. Playing down the allegation that the UDF was in cahoots with the BJP, he said the LDF had been raising such charges out of fear of defeat.
Sindhumol Jacob too exuded confidence that she would win the seat. LDF mandalam commitee secretary Shaju Jacob said there was a wave in favour of the LDF candidate.
M. Ashish, NDA candidate, said the front was expected to improve its vote share and garner around 30,000 votes this time.
