Kochi, Jun 3 (IANS): Congress candidate Uma Thomas maintained a lead with over 6,000 votes against CPI-M's Joe Joseph in the third round as counting of votes began on Friday for the May 31 Thrikkakara by-election.

Her late husband P.T.Thomas had got a lead of 3,000 votes in the April 2021 Assembly polls in the same round and Uma has doubled it.

Assured of Uma winning, celebrations have already started in the Congress camp. Voices could also heard against K.V.Thomas who switched over to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Though in between, the intense campaigning by the CPI-M led by Vijayan along with his full cabinet in tow and over 75 legislators, did seem to unnerve Congress briefly, soon it overcame it and continued with campaigning.

There are 11 rounds of counting and both Uma and Joseph are extremely confident of winning, while the BJP veteran A.N.Radhakrishnan till voting ended on May 31st expressed hopes that he will win, that scenario changed on Thursday when he said he will get more votes what the BJP candidate secured at the 2021 Assembly polls.

The first Congress-led UDF leader who announced that the initial trends show that Uma is heading for a big win was Indian Union Muslim League veteran P.K.Kunhalikutty said this is clear verdict against the Vijayan government.

"This was what CPI-M state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said during the campaign that the result would be an assessment of the Vijayan government," said Kunhalikutty.

The election was neccesitated by the sudden demise of two-time Thrikkakara's Congress legislator P.T.Thomas in December last year.

While many expected the turnout to be the highest ever since the constituency came into being 2011, when polling ended it turned out to be the least ever with 68.77 per cent only casting their votes.