Incident-free polling in rural constituencies of Ernakulam
Polling went off peacefully in the three largely rural constituencies of Ernakulam — Muvattupuzha, Kothamangalam, and Perumbavoor — with the segments recording 73.31%, 76.54% and 76.04% votes respectively, as on 7.10 p.m. on Tuesday.
Interestingly, 74.48% voters from Penganchuvadu tribal colony in Perumbavoor exercised their franchise even earlier than 5 p.m. It was 80.39% at Thalumkandam sales space in Kothamangalam, yet one more distant forest locale in Ernakulam.
There had been common or below-average queues in most cubicles in the three constituencies, the place the recognition of the candidates of the corporate-backed Twenty20 has been giving sleepless nights to the three conventional fronts.
Fresh air
Life went on as typical in most of these locales, with individuals discovering time to talk over a tea or collect at junctions. The eco-friendly polling cubicles readied collectively by the Haritha Kerala Mission and Suchitwa Mission ushered in a whiff of recent air with braided coconut leaves and different tastefully done-up objects sourced from nature.
The Ernakulam Rural police stated voting was peaceable. Polling was disrupted at a sales space at Government UP School, Mulavoor, for over an hour after two digital voting machines (EVMs) developed technical glitches. Voting started at 8.15 a.m. there.
Scorching solar
In their keenness to train franchise, a number of voters travelled lengthy distances, braving the solar, as in the case of Sister Teresa of Adoration Convent, with whom The Puucho caught up at St. George Higher Secondary School, Kothamangalam.
A Pala native, her title figures in the voters’ record in Kothamangalam, the place she had served as supervisor of a press run by the college. “I travelled here from Muvattupuzha with two other nuns to cast vote. With the entry of Twenty20, none can predict a victory for any candidate,” she stated.
Then there was 19-year-old Vaishnav who stated the LDF candidate had been a crowd-puller. “But polls are a different ball game, and the issue-based politics of Twenty-20 is finding many takers,” he noticed.
Sitting MLA Antony John of the LDF is locked in a pitched battle with Shibu Thekumpuram of the UDF, Joe Joseph (son-in-law of KC (J) chief P.J. Joseph) of Twenty20, and Shine K. Krishnan of the NDA in Kothamangalam.
Church feud
The Metropolitan of the Malankara Syrian Jacobite Church, Baselios Thomas-I Metropolitan, forged his vote in Kothamangalam. The escalating feud between the Jacobite and Orthodox factions is a essential issue in the electoral end result in the constituency and in addition in Muvattupuzha and Perumbavoor which have sizeable presence of voters from the Jacobite group.
In Muvattupuzha, sitting MLA Eldho Abraham of the LDF is preventing Mathew Kuzhalnadan of the UDF, C.N. Prakash of Twenty20, and Jiji Joseph of the NDA.
While voters discovered refuge underneath bushes or in buildings to beat the simmering warmth, kiosks provided fruit juices free of charge to them. Youths underneath the banner of Sunni Yuvajana Sangam (SYS) provided watermelon juice to passers-by in Perumbavoor the place the UDF’s sitting MLA Eldhose Kunnapilly is battling the LDF’s Babu Joseph, Twenty20’s Chitra Sukumaran, and T.P. Sindhumol of the NDA.
“The State-wide trend suggests that the LDF could retain power,” stated Prakash, a clam vendor on the Perumbavoor-Aluva street. In placing distinction, Ankush from Uttar Pradesh, who bought recent sugarcane juice in the city with a sizeable inhabitants of migrant employees, appeared little in the elections. “But I make it to my home State for all elections there,” he stated.