Tuesday, November 22 2005 10:36 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Tamil Nadu: Left Democratic Front candidate Pannayan Raveendran of the CPI is slightly ahead of his Congress rival V S Sivakumar as counting of votes of the Lok Sabha by-election in Thiruvananthapuram began this morning(Nov 22,2005).

Trends from seven counting centres showed that Raveendran was leading by over 1000 votes.

The by-poll was necessitated by the death of veteran CPI leader P K Vasudevan Nair, who won the seat with a margin of 54,000 votes in 2004. The LDF candidate is steadily maintaining his edge by over 6,000 votes, leading in four of the seven assembly segments in the sprawling constituency, part of which borders Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari district.

BJP candidate C K Padmanabhan is far behind the UDF and LDF.

In the keenly fought electoral battle six months ahead of the assembly polls, the Congress breakaway faction of DIC(K), led by former Chief Minister K Karunakaran, had pledged its support to the LDF.