CPI-M smells victory in Kerala bye-election (Second Lead)

Chengannur (Kerala) May 31 (IANS) Counting of votes for the bypoll to the Chengannur Assembly seat in Kerala is underway on Thursday with CPI-M candidate Saji Cherian taking a comfortable lead of over 4 000 votes after counting started for the third round.
In the 2016 assembly polls the Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate K.K. Ramachandran Nair had a lead of only 2 000 votes. The bypoll was necessitated following Nair s death in January "The signs are good and victory is becoming clear because I have led in all the 14 booths in the first round which include strongholds of the Congress-led UDF " said Cherian. "With the trend becoming more and more clear Cherian appears to be firmly establishing the lead. The CPI-M candidate clearly has an upper hand in the Congress strongholds " said senior Congress leader Rajmohan Unnithan. Congress candidate D. Vijayakumar is in the second position followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party s P.S. Sreedharan Pillai. "I had told soon after the elections that the Left has purchased votes and all that can be seen now " said Pillai. Voting for the seat took place on Monday.
--IANS sg/in