Congress candidate Priyanka Gandhi Vadra arrives to meet voters at a polling in Wayanad.
Credit: PTI Photo
Thiruvananthapuram: Casting a shadow over the Congress's hopes of presenting a historic victory margin for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the voter turnout at Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll came down considerably.
According to the data available from the election commission, the total voter turnout till 7.40 pm was 64.71 per cent. In the last general election the polling percentage at Wayanad was 73.5 percent.
From morning onwards the voter turnout was quite feeble.
In view of the huge turnout of people during the campaign meetings of the Nehru scion, who made her electoral debut from Wayanad as Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate, the Congress camps were expecting a victory margin of five lakh votes for her.
However, the fall in voter turnout is casting a shadow over that hope. When Congress leader and Priyanka's brother Rahul Gandhi secured a margin of 4.31 lakh in 2019 the voter turnout was 80.37 percent.
In the 2024 general election Rahul's victory margin came down to 3.64 lakh with a voter turnout of 73.57 percent.
Leader of opposition V D Satheesan said that the party would seriously look into the reasons for the fall in the voter turnout. He however expressed hopes that the voter turnout at Congress's stronghold didn't fall and hence Priyanka's victory margin will be above Rahul's.
Priyanka who visited various polling stations during the day expressed confidence that the people of Wayanad would make her their MP.
Left-front and BJP camps maintained that the people of Wayanad had shown their resentment towards Rahul betraying the people by quitting the constituency to retain Raebareli and wasting money for another by-poll.
Congress camps countered that CPI(M) and BJP voters abstained from the polling to express their resentment towards the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala and BJP government at the Centre.
LDF candidate Sathyan Mokeri and BJP candidate Navya Haridas had been focusing on Rahul's resignation as one of the key issues during the campaign.
Emotional polling for landslide victims
The polling became an emotional affair for the survivors of the Chooralmala-Mundakkai landslide as many among them who were present for the last general election died in the landslide.
Around 200 persons on the voters list had died in the landslide.
Since the survivors are now staying at temporary accommodations at various places, a special booth was arranged for them at Meppadi and transportation arrangements were also made.
Many of them turned emotional when they met other survivors at the polling booth. Some were yet to recover fully from the injuries caused. One of the survivors expressed hopes that they would be able to stay together at the proposed township at least by the next election.