Polling begins in Ernakulam assembly constituency

Kochi, November 7: Polling began in the by-election to the Ernakulam Assembly Constituency at 8 am today with moderate polling being reported in the first hour.

Men, women and elderly voters have turned up to vote within the first hour of polling, polling officials said.

Polling has far been peaceful with no untoward incidents being reported from anywhere in the constituency so far, officials said.

There are 137 polling booths in the constituency.

Tight security has been made in the polling stations with police and a contingent of Karnataka police, who have been deployed.

The main contest in the constituency is Dominic Presentation of UDF and P N Seenulal of LDF. BJP has fielded Sobha Surendran. Besides the three, there are 12 independants in fray.

The total electorate is 1,43,091 (70,852 men and 72,239 women).

The bypoll was necessitated as the sitting MLA UDF's K V Thomas has resigned for contesting the parliament election in April.

with PTI inputs