MALAPPURAM: UDF candidate Aryadan Shoukath is leading when the counting of votes is progressing in Nilambur. The votes in Vazhikkadavu were counted first. It is a setback that Aryadan Shoukath couldn’t achieve the expected lead in Vazhikkadavu, a UDF stronghold. The UDF expected a lead of 3,000 votes here, but could not garner it. It is assessed that the votes obtained by P V Anvar reduced the UDF's expected lead in the first round.
Anvar got the lead here in both elections when he contested as an independent candidate. In 2016, when he contested against Aryadan Shoukath, he had a lead of 2,162 votes. He won with a majority of 11,504 votes that time. In 2021, when he contested against V V Prakash, Anvar got a lead of only 35 votes in Vazhikkadavu. The majority has been reduced to 2,700.
Vazhikkadavu is the largest panchayat in the Nilambur constituency and has the most voters here. This is where Anvar is expecting more votes. This is also the area where Muslim League has an influence. There is no doubt that the UDF's calculation of getting a majority of 12,000 to 15,000 votes will be fulfilled by defeating him here. Following a complaint that the VVPAT was not working at booth number two in Marutha in Vazhikkadavu panchayat, the 48 votes polled till then were examined in the presence of political party representatives. When the slips were counted, 42 votes went to the UDF.