Congress mayoral candidate N Venugopal, has lost to the BJP candidate by one vote, in the Kochi Corporation North Island ward in the state's local body elections.

"It was a sure seat. I can't say what happened. There was no problem in the party. There was a problem with the voting machine. That may be the reason for BJP's victory. I have not decided to go to court with the voting machine issue so far. Will check what happened exactly," Venugopal said.

The counting of votes for local body polls in Kerala is underway at 244 counting centres across the state.

With all COVID-19 protocols in place, the counting of votes of Kerala local body elections started at 8 am today and the final results are expected by 1 pm. State Election Commissioner V Bhaskaran has said the postal votes, including special ballot votes, will be counted first and EVM votes later.

The district collectors of several districts of Kerala have imposed section 144 of CrPC on the basis of reports from concerned district police chiefs. The clashes between party workers were reported in many places of these districts during the election. The CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), Congress-led, United Democratic Front (UDF) and BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) were in the fray for local body polls in Kerala.

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