Nilambur, June 19 (IANS) Despite the rains, voters were queuing up in front of the 263 polling booths in Nilambur, Kerala, where bypolls are being held.

Voting began at 7 a.m., and after two hours, the polling percentage of 8 per cent was recorded.

There are 2,32,381 votes in the constituency, which includes 1,13,613 males, 1,18,760 females, and eight transgender voters.

A total of ten candidates are in the fray, of whom four candidates are confident of pulling through.

The principal fight is between Aryadan Shoukath of the Congress and M.Swaraj of the CPI(M), with two-time former Independent legislator P.V. Anvar, who quit the seat in January after a difference of opinion with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, and Mohan George of the BJP are also in the fray.

Shoukath came to the polling booth accompanied by his family and said that he was excited to see a large number of voters arriving to vote.

“There is no doubt I am going to win with a record margin,” he said.

Soon after Shoukath cast his vote and came out, CPI(M)’s Swaraj also came to cast his vote. They were seen congratulating one another, and after a friendly hug, both went their ways.

Swaraj, a former CPI(M) legislator, is also equally confident that when votes are counted on June 23, he will be the eventual winner with a reasonable margin.

But the most confident was Anvar, who said he is going to get a total of over 75,000 votes. He is the only one who doesn’t have a vote in the constituency, while the three other front-line candidates have their votes in the constituency.

“When the counting of votes gets over, I will get the ticket to enter the Kerala Assembly, Shoukath will continue with his writing, and Swaraj can return to his state party headquarters,” said Anvar.

The voting will continue till 6 p.m. The Chief Electoral Officer, Ratan U. Kelkar, after assessing the first hour of voting, said that by and large, the voting is going on smoothly with minor issues here and there, and they are on watch all the time.

–IANS

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