LDF candidate A.M. Ariff during the final minutes of campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls in the Alappuzha constituency on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: SURESH ALLEPPEY
NDA candidate Shobha Surendran during the final minutes of campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls in the Alappuzha constituency on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: SURESH ALLEPPEY
The high-decibel poll campaigning in the Alappuzha and Mavelikara Lok Sabha constituencies ended on Wednesday.
Supporters of the three major political fronts- Communist Party of India (Marxist)- led Left Democratic Front (LDF), Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) staged noisy performances during the final hours of the campaign at different places.
As many as 11 candidates are in the fray in Alappuzha constituency, including incumbent MP, A.M. Ariff of the CPI (M), K.C. Venugopal of the Congress and Shobha Surendran of the BJP.
While Mr. Ariff hopes to retain the seat, the UDF is aiming to wrest it through Congress heavyweight Venugopal who represented the constituency twice in the lower house from 2009 to 2019. Ms. Surendran is aiming for a surprise victory.
In Mavelikara constituency, which is spread across three districts, the fight is between incumbent MP, Kodikunnil Suresh, of the Congress, C.A. Arunkumar of the Communist Party of India and NDA candidate Baiju Kalasala of the Bharat Dharma Jana Sena. As many as nine candidates are in the fray in the constituency.
District Collector Alex Varghese said that all arrangements were in place for the free, fair and smooth conduct of polls on Friday. A total of 27.31 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in Alappuzha and Mavelikara constituencies. Alappuzha has 14,00,083 voters while there are 13,31,880 voters in Mavelikara.
The District Collector said that 2,614 polling booths had been set up in the district. As many as 4,102 officials have been selected for the Lok Sabha polling duty in the district. Micro-observers will be deployed in 39 critical and vulnerable booths in the district on the polling day.
District Police Chief Chaitra Teresa John said that 3,000 police personnel had been deployed in the district to prevent any untoward incident during the polling.
