Stephan Kayyar

Daijiworld Media Network – Kasargod (EP)

Kasargod, Oct 21: Voting for Manjeshwar vidhan sabha constituency that remained vacant by the death of MLA P B Abdul Razak began this morning. Though voting was brisk during the first hour, voters had to remain in the queue for a long time as the process got delayed. Voters reached the polling booth to cast their votes despite the rain.

Lines were seen since the morning in between police security. There are reports of delay due to malfunctioning of AVMs.

Web casting is provided in 20 polling booths. Video recording is in progress in all the 198 polling booths. Para military force personnel are deployed in most polling booths.

This is the first time that by-elections are held in Manjeshwar. It has drawn attention by triangular contest. UDF’s P B Abdul Razak had won by a margin of mere 89 votes against BJP’s K Surendran in 2016 elections. Therefore, the elections caused curiosity on national level.

There are 2,14,799 voters in Manjeshwar with 198 polling booths. Elections will be held from 7 am to 6 pm.

LDF’s candidate, M Shanker Rai was the first to cast his vote in 165th polling booth, Angadimogaru Higher Secondary School. Seven candidates are in the fray including UDF’s M C Khamaruddin, LDF’s M Shanker Rai and BJP’s Kuntaru Ravish Tantry.