Congress candidate Aryadan Shokath maintained a lead on his main rival CPI (M) candidate M. Swaraj on Monday in the fifth round of counting of votes for Bipol in the Nilambur assembly seat in Kerala.
When the fifth round of counting out of 19 rounds came to an end, Shokath took a lead of 3,890 votes.
The counting of votes for Bipol in Nilambur assembly seat in Malappuram district of Kerala started at 8 am on Monday.
Two -time independent MLA PV Anwar left last year after CPI (M). The Nilambur assembly seat, which comes within the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat represented by Priyanka Gandhi of Congress, recorded 75.87 percent polling.
In the first phase of counting, 1,403 postal votes would be opened before unlocking electronic voting machines (EVMs), which recorded 1,74,667 votes.
The CPI (M) has fielded Swaraj, a member of its Yuva Party State Secretariat, and the Congress has nominated Shaukath, son of the late party veteran Aryadan Muhammad, who represented the seat uninterruptedly from 1987 to 2016.
Anwar, who quit rebelling against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, is contesting as an independent candidate. The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded Mohan George, who was with the regional Christian party Kerala Congress before embracing the BJP after the announcement of the by -election program.
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The LDF regime for the ruling CPI (M) and the Congress-led opposition UDF has been slated for April-May 2026 for the Kerala assembly elections. A win in the by -election will be a major boost for Pinarayi Vijayan Regim.
Anwar has announced that it is in the election field to defeat “Pinarism”. The Congress, which has been in opposition for the last nine years, has said that it is fighting to prove the anti-opposition factor against Vijayan rule.
Bypolls Results (T) Nilambur bypolls Results 2025
