Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 8 : Counting of votes for the Puthuppally by-election, voting for which took place on September 5, began this morning amid tight security. The process started with postal votes followed by those cast by the elders and then the Electronic Voting Machines. Congress candidate Chandy Oommen got off to a flyer with his lead crossing 1,500 in a few minutes. As soon as the first trend was announced, the Congress-led UDF supporters broke into a huge applause outside the counting centre at the Kottayam Baselius College. Approximately 72.86 per cent of the eligible 1,76,412 electorate exercised their franchise for the bypoll necessitated after the demise of sitting Congress legislator- Oommen Chandy, a two-time former Chief Minister and who represented the constituency from 1970 for a record-breaking 53 years. In the fray are Chandy's son Chandy Oommen for the Congress, CPI(M)'s Jaick C.Thomas in his third outing in the constituency, BJP's Lijin Lal and four others. In the 2021 Assembly polls, Chandy defeated Thomas by 9,044 votes. While Chandy Oommen is reportedly catching up with the trends from his ancestral home in Puthuppally, Thomas was at the district office of the CPI(M) along with the campaign's leader- State Minister for Cooperation V.N.Vasavan. /IANS