kochi the suspense over who will win thrikkakara assembly seat will end on friday with the counting of votes set to begin at 8am leaders of both ldf and udf the major contestants have aired hopes of winning thrikkakara this timedespite all the high decibel campaign the poll percentage which was 70 39 in 2021 had slipped to 68 77 this time making any predictions difficult while ldf candidate dr jo joseph expressed confidence of wresting the seat udf candidate uma thomas was certain about retaining the seat nda candidate a n radhakrishnan said that the vote share of the front would go up the leaders of the ldf and the udf also echoed same level of confidence in winningcongress leader and former mla dominic presentation said that the udf candidate would win by around 5000 to 8000 votes cpm district secretary cn mohanan said that the ldf candidate would win with a margin of around 4000 votes cpm state secretariat member m swaraj said that the ldf would win he said that voters who usually support others also voted in favour of jo joseph the polling in ponekkara palarivattom kadavanthra and girinagar areas dipped and the average polling in these areas was less than 55 while it was pointed out that the low voter turnout in these areas meant a dip in the udf votes leaders of the front said that all the votes which were expected to favour the udf candidate were polledat the same time booths in thrikkakara municipality especially in eastern parts of the municipality recorded comparative ly high voter turnout the ldf leadership hopes that this will favour its candidate the absence of twenty20 and aap candidate could also prove crucialthe district administration informed that all measures to ensure a smooth counting of votes are in place the electronic voting machines evms which are stored in the strong room at maharajas college will be taken out in the presence of candidates and representatives of political parties at 7 30am atotal of 21 counting tables have been arranged a counting supervisor counting assistant micro observer and an agent of the candidate will be there at each table around 100 officials have been deployed for counting dutyit was the demise of thrikkakar mla p t thomas that necessitated the bypoll in 2021 assembly elections thomas had won by a margin of over 14000 votes