Kerala bypolls: 71.43 per cent voter turnout at Pala

An estimated voter turnout of 71.43 per cent was recorded in the bypolls held at Pala constituency here on Monday.

"Out of a total of 179,107 voters, 127939 people cast their votes. Of these 65203 were males and 62736 were females. 74.32% of the men voted and 68.65% of the women voted," read a press release from Kerala Information and Public Relations department.

Voting for bye-election in the Pala Assembly seat commenced on Monday at 176 polling booths spread across the constituency.

A total of 13 candidates are in the fray, including Tom Jose of United Democratic Front, Mani C Kappan of Left Democratic Front and N Hari of National Democratic Alliance.

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

Mani represented Pala constituency for over 50 years.

Last month the Election Commission announced bye-elections for four Assembly seats in Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Tripura, and Uttar Pradesh.

The counting of votes will take place on September 27.