Congress scratches head over lower voter turnout in Wayanad bypoll, but sure of Priyanka's win

This was a decline from the nearly 74 per cent turnout recorded in the April polls, when her brother and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi contested from the hill constituency.

Thiruvananthapuram: High number of voters either working or studying outside the constituency and lack of enthusiasm to vote for a bypoll in which the victory of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi is quite certain are among the possible reasons cited by political camps for the lowest ever voter turnout of 64.72 percent in Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll on Wednesday.

The Congress leadership is on a serious mission to find out the reason for the lower voter turnout, especially since the party top brass had even come down to Wayanad to support Priyanka Gandhi in her maiden electoral battle. Congress is making a booth level analysis in the constituency and a report will be sent to the AICC.

Congress sources said that the party's initial post-poll estimation is a victory margin of four lakhs for Priyanka, while the target was five lakh.

A Congress leader pointed out that many voters in the constituency are either working or studying in other places and could not turn up for voting. However, that doesn't justify the steep fall in voter turnout to 64.72 percent from 73.5 percent in the previous election. The fall is almost proportionate in all the assembly constituencies, said the leader.

AICC general secretary K C Venugopal expressed confidence that the fall in voter turnout would not affect the victory margin for Priyanka.

Left front candidate Sathyan Mokeri of the CPI reiterates that people's resentment towards the Congress and Rahul Gandhi for betraying them was the reason for the fall in voter turnout. "Rahul announced his candidature for Raebareli only after the polling in Wayanad during the general election, which was a clear attempt to betray the people. We have extensively campaigned on that and we could also feel the resentment at the grass roots level," he told DH.

There was also widespread resentment among the people over the back to back elections, he added.

Congress camps are also of the view that since the victory of Priyanka was quite certain and the bypoll results are not so crucial in national politics, there could have been a lack of enthusiasm among the people to vote.