KERALAVote counting for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat and the Palakkad and Chelakkara assembly constituencies commenced at 8 am on Saturday.The counting of votes began with the postal ballots being taken up first.Bypolls were held in Wayanad Lok Sabha and Chelakkara assembly constituencies on November 13 and in Palakkad on November 20, respectively.Initially, the by-polls were to be held in all three seats on November 13, but the by-election in Palakkad was postponed to November 20 due to the Kalpathi Radhotsavam festival.The initial trend emerging from the counting of ballots in the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala on Saturday saw Congress-led UDF candidate Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the lead, with over 4 lakh votes according to TV channel reports with no word yet from the Election Commission.The counting of votes polled commenced at 8 am with postal ballots being taken up first.The strong rooms, where the EVMs were kept, were opened more than an hour before counting began.The bypoll for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat was held on November 13.In a major boost to the opposition Congress-led UDF, the grand old party retained the Palakkad Assembly seat with its candidate Rahul Mamkootathil winning by a significant margin of 18,840 votes, pushing the ruling Left bloc to the third spot.Mamkootathil secured 58,389 votes as against BJP’s C Krishnakumar who garnered 39,549 votes, according to the Election Commission of India (ECI).LDF candidate Dr P Sarin, the former Digital Media Convener of KPCC who switched to the Left after the national party announced the candidacy of Youth Congress state president Mamkootathil, finished third with 37,293 votes.Krishnakumar initially led the race.However, Mamkootathil gained a narrow lead of 1,425 votes in the seventh round of counting and then on, steadily increased his margin in the subsequent rounds.Meanwhile, ruling LDF candidate U R Pradeep extended his lead by over 11,000 votes as counting of votes was completed in 10 rounds in the Chelakkara Assembly bypoll in Kerala on Saturday, according to the Election Commission.The Left candidate has been retaining his lead since the very beginning of the counting of votes against his nearest rivals.As per the figures released by the Election Commission at 11.50 am, Pradeep was leading by a margin of 11,936 votes against his nearest rival and Congress candidate Ramya Haridas after the counting of votes was completed in 10 rounds.While Pradeep got 51,358 votes in the 10th round, Haridas secured 39,422 votes and BJP’s K Balakrishnan received 26,394 votes, according to EC figures.Though there were six candidates in the fray in Chelakkara, the main contest was between Pradeep and Haridas.
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