Kerala - Thrissur   

43.53% turnout in bypoll

Local concerns: Voters waiting to exercise their franchise at a polling booth in Thrissur on Wednesday.

Thrissur: Byelection for the Thekkinkad division of Thrissur Corporation, held on Wednesday, witnessed 43.53 per cent polling.

In all, 2,706 voters exercised their franchise. Five incidents of alleged attempts to cast false votes were reported.

The police arrested Veliyannur Veettil Ravindran, a Corporation contingency worker, in this connection. Three women, who were waiting at a polling booth to cast votes, fled the scene as Ravindran was arrested. A person gave policemen the slip after he could not prove his identity at a booth around 2.30 p.m.

Three persons who arrived at a booth in a vehicle owned by the Thrissur Corporation ran away when United Democratic Front and Bharatiya Janata Party activists accused the Left Democratic Front of ballot-rigging.

There was an altercation between the police and Mayor R. Bindu around 4 p.m. when she was prevented from being within 100 metres of a polling booth.

Counting of votes will be held at the Maharaja’s Technical Institute on Thursday. The byelection was held following the death of Corporation councillor Thiyyadi Jayan on August 30, 2007. Bylection was also held at Eranallur East Ward in Choondal panchayat.

It witnessed 80.7 per cent polling. Counting of votes will be held at Guruvayur Sreekrishna College on Thursday.

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