What Was the Voter Turnout in the Nilambur By-election?

Synopsis
Key Takeaways
- Voter turnout was 73.22 percent.
- Counting of votes starts at 8 a.m. on Monday.
- Ten candidates contested in the election.
- Aryadan Shoukath aims for a record victory margin.
- Polling booths increased by over 50 since 2021.
Nilambur, June 19 (NationPress) As the polling for the Nilambur Assembly by-election concluded on Thursday, the voter turnout was recorded at 73.22 percent, a decrease from the 76.31 percent observed during the 2024 Assembly elections.
Vote counting will commence at 8 a.m. on Monday, and initial trends are expected to surface within a couple of hours, according to an official announcement.
The constituency has a total of 232,381 registered voters, comprising 113,613 males, 118,760 females, and eight transgender voters, with 10 candidates contesting for the position.
As soon as the voting concluded at 6 p.m., three candidates asserted that they would emerge victorious.
Aryadan Shoukath from the Congress party expressed confidence that he would win with a record margin, aiming to exceed the 21,620 votes his father secured in 2001, which remains the largest victory margin in Nilambur since 1965.
Similarly, M. Swaraj, a former legislator from CPI-M, claimed he would win with a significant margin, while P.V. Anvar, the key figure behind this by-election, also projected a strong victory.
Anvar, who previously won as a Left independent candidate in 2016 and 2021, resigned in January due to disagreements with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. He confidently stated, “I am going to win with a margin of 30,000 votes.”
Mohan George from the BJP, who joined the party after his candidacy announcement, remained realistic about the election, suggesting that “the BJP will do very well.” In the 2021 polls, the BJP candidate only managed to secure 8,595 votes.
Despite inclement weather on Thursday morning, voters lined up at the 263 polling booths in the Nilambur constituency.
With over 50 additional polling booths compared to 2021, voting concluded at the scheduled time of 6 p.m. in most locations.