Polling gets underway in Neyyattinkara

Saturday, June 02, 2012: Polling for the crucial by-election to the Neyyattinkara Assembly constituency began today amidst tight security arrangements.
The constituency has 1,64,856 voters, up from 1,58,897 voters in the 2011 Assembly election. There are 863 service voters in the constituency. Of the total electorate, 85,441 are women and 79,415 men.
The polling process in 15 booths will be webcast real time.
According to police report, 70 out of 143 polling stations have been identified as sensitive in the Neyyattinkara. It has been decided to install CCTV cameras in these sensitive polling booths.
Though the main electoral fight in Neyyatinkara, situated in the southernmost part of the state, is between R Selvaraj (Congress) of UDF and F Lawrence (CPI-M), the entry of former Union Minister and senior BJP leader O Rajagopal as BJP candidate has virtually turned the contest into a three- cornered one.
The poll results are crucial especially for CPI-M as it is their sitting seat. The Left party is also facing an image loss at present after some activists were arrested in connection with the murder of Revolutionary Marxist Party leader T P Chandrasekharan at Onchiyam in Kozhikode on May 4.