KOCHI: The campaigning for the bypoll in Gandhi Nagar division of Kochi corporation ended on Sunday, setting the stage for a tight contest between the LDF and the UDF on Tuesday. The results will be declared on Wednesday.
The byelection is crucial for both fronts as the CPM-led LDF is governing the corporation with a margin of four seats. The LDF has 36 seats and the UDF 32, with the BJP holding the remaining four seats. The byelection was necessitated following the death of CPM councillor K K Sivan in May this year.
P D Martin of the Congress, a former welfare standing committee chairperson who lost to Sivan last time, is the UDF candidate. Bindu Sivan, wife of the late Sivan, is the LDF candidate while P G Manoj Kumar, BJP’s Ernakulam assembly constituency president, is the NDA candidate.
The election campaigning concluded with a ‘kottikalasham’. Mayor M Anilkumar, Ernakulam MLA T J Vinod and Aluva MLA Anwar Sadath, among others, attended the final day for their respective fronts. Silent campaigning will continue till the polling day.
Gandhi Nagar, the 63rd division, is considered a Left bastion with the front holding the seat for the past 35 years. However, recent results have shown that the LDF is losing its vote share. In the 2020 local body polls, Sivan won the ward with a margin of 115 votes, whereas former councillor Poornima Narayanan had won in 2015 with a majority of 849 votes.