LDF's Mani C Kappan wins by-election in Kerala 's Pala in tough fight with UDF rival

Mani C Kappan defeated United Democratic Front candidate Advocate Jose Tom to win the Pala assembly by-polls.

Pala: Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate Mani C Kappan registered a win in the Pala assembly by-polls by a margin of over 2,900 votes. The counting of votes was taken up on Friday morning. According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), Kappan bagged 54,137 votes by around 2:28 PM.

However, United Democratic Front candidate Advocate Jose Tom did give him a tough competition tailing him with 51,194 votes.

An estimated voter turnout of 71.43 per cent was recorded at 176 polling booths spread across the Pala constituency in the bye-polls held on September 21.

A total of 13 candidates were in the fray, including Tom Jose of United Democratic Front, Mani C Kappan of Left Democratic Front and N Hari of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The bye-election was necessitated in Pala following the death of Kerala Congress (M) leader KM Mani in April this year. 

He had represented Pala constituency for over 50 years.