Malappuram bypoll: UDF leader PK Kunhalikutty maintains steady lead as counting progresses

MALAPPURAM: Congress-led UDF maintains a steady lead as the counting of byelction to the Malappuram Lok Sabha constituency is progressing.
As the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) candidate PK Kunhalikkutty is leading by more than 84,882 votes, UDF workers have started victory celebrations across the constituency.
In the previous election, UDF's E Ahamed defeated LDF's P K Sainaba with a huge margin of 1.9 lakh votes.While E Ahamed had secured 4,37,723 votes, P K Sainaba of LDF secured 2,42,984 votes.
With six Independents and three party candidates, a total of nine candidates were in the fray for the election necessitated after the sudden demise of Muslim League leader E Ahamed who was representing the constituency.
Apart from the developmental issues of the constituency, many controversial topics such as beef ban, police action against Jishnu’s mother etc were also major campaign topics of the byelection held on April 12. The decision of SDPI and Welfare Party of India (WPI) which won around 70,000 votes together in previous election, not to field candidate this time made the vote share of parties unpredictable.
The constituency had witnessed a huge voter turnout of 71.33 per cent, which is a small surge from the previous Lok Sabha poll in the constituency.
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