85% turnout in re-polling at Kannur, Kasaragod booths

KANNUR: Contrary to the apprehension that voters might be disgruntled with the repoll in seven booths in Kannur and Kasaragod parliament constituencies, there was good turnout — recording over 85% — at most booths on Sunday.


Though there were some stray incidents of bickering between LDF and UDF workers, the polling was rather peaceful.

In Kannur Lok Sabha constituency, repoll was held at booth number 166 in Mappila AUP School at Pamburuthi in Thaliparamba assembly segment, booth number 52 and 53 at Kunnirika UP School in Dharmadam segment. The booths that are part of Kasaragod Lok Sabha constituency are booth number 19 at Pilathara UP School and booth numbers 69 and 70 at Puthiyangadi Juma’ath High School. In Kasaragod district, repoll was held at booth number 48 at Kooliyad GUP School in Trikkaripur segment.

In order to prevent any untoward incident and to ensure free and fair polling, police arranged tight security in all the polling stations. In Kannur, around 400 police personnel were deployed. “In Kannur, the polling was held in polling stations spread over four premises, which are part of Kasaragod and Kannur Lok Sabha constituencies and we had around 100 police personnel on each premise, under the leadership of a DSP,” said Kannur district police chief G Siva Vikram.

Large queues were seen at most of the booths in the early hours itself and woman voters turned up in large numbers. Bogus voting reported at these booths on April 23 necessitated the repoll.

At Pamburuthi, a tiny island on the Valapattanam River, voters were permitted to enter only after verifying their credentials. Still many cases of companion votes were reported in some booths, including like Kunnirika UP School, but officials said all these votes were cast as per the rules.

Meanwhile, LDF filed a complaint with the returning officer against UDF candidate Rajmohan Unnithan, who visited booth number 19 at Pilathara UP School, claiming that he campaigned at the booth thereby violating the model code of conduct. However, KJ Shalet, who could not vote on April 23 as her vote was cast by someone else, said Unnithan talked to her while she was standing in queue and expressed his satisfaction over the victory of democratic process. She added that the candidate did not seek vote.