The early results from the Puthupally bypolls' initial hour of vote counting indicate a significant surge in support for Chandy Oommen, son of the late Congress leader Oommen Chandy. After completing the first two rounds of counting, Chandy Oommen held a lead of more than 6,200 votes.
The votes from Ayarkkunnam and postal ballots were tallied during this initial rounds, and Chandy Oommen secured the lead in all booths within the Ayarkunnam Panchayat. In 2021, six booths in Ayarkunnam were in favour of LDF. They lost all those booths this time.
The LDF candidate Jaick C. Thomas and the CPI(M) hoped to keep the UDF lead under 1,000 here.
Notably, Ayarkunnam is a place were LDF ally Kerala Congress (M) also has significant influence.
However, the counting suggests that there is a clear mandate in favour of the UDF candidate. The BJP candidate is not even there in the picture.
If the trend is to continue in other seven panchayats in the constituency, too, Chandy Oommen may have record margin in the final results. Interestingly, Chandy Oommen has earned more than double the votes in Ayarkunnam breaking Oommen Chandy's lead in 2021 elections.
Oommen Chandy’s most substantial victory margin in Puthuppally materialised in 2011 when he triumphed by a margin of 33,255 votes against Suja Susan George of the CPI(M). However, the current trend suggests that Chandy Oommen can have a winning margin that would even cross his father’s 2011 record.
