The counting of votes in Piravom, held at the Nirmala Junior School at Moovattupuzha that is the alma mater of UDF candidate Anoop Jacob, took about two hours to complete on Wednesday. But, it was a knockout for LDF candidate M.J. Jacob in the first round itself.
The counting started at 8 am with 12 booths of erstwhile Thiruvankulam panchayat (it was later merged with Trippunithura municipality) and 2 booth of Chottanikkara panchayat, considered the strongholds of the LDF.
Thiruvankulam booths had a large number of factory workers as voters and they had given MJ a lead of over 2,000 votes in 2011. But, this time around, the LDF candidate's lead here came down to 365 votes.
Chottanikkara panchayat too was a big letdown for MJ, as he could manage only a 171-vote-lead in place of the about 1500 votes lead in 2011. By now, MJ admitted that he could see the writing on the wall. It was Mulanthuruthy, a panchayat that stood by the UDF in the earlier polls that followed.
Here, the UDF candidate established a lead of 1,522 votes and he did not look back from there, leading in all the remaining nine panchayats.
The highest lead of 2,197 for Anoop came from Thirumarady, the home panchayat of both the UDF and LDF candidates. While the votes in Elanji and Koothattukulam, the last ones, were counted, the lead even went beyond the expectations of UDF leaders and stood at 12,070.
Altogether, there were 134 booths and the counting was completed at about 10 am.
Interestingly, while the counting centre was swarmed by UDF workers with flags, boards and banners from the early morning, the LDF presence was limited to a few leaders, indicating that the Opposition had an inkling of what was to come.
The victorious candidate was taken out by UDF workers on their shoulders from the counting center at the end of the counting.
His first destination was St Mary's Church, Aattinkunnu, where his father T.M. Jacob was buried. As he reached the church at around 12 noon, his mother, Daisy Jacob, was waiting there for him.