Union Minister Shashi Tharoor is back in the reckoning after establishing the slenderest of lead over BJP veteran O Rajagopal who was threatening to take it away from him.
Tharoor had to wait until 75 per cent of the votes were counted to come in the lead, which says a lot about the fight offered by Rajagopal.
The BJP leader had enlarged his lead up to 13,000 votes before he started to stumble in the last leg of counting.
Left Democratic Front candidate is running a distant third in the counting, which is about to reach 80 per cent.
Congress-led United Democratic Front is leading in 13 seats and the Opposition Left Front in the rest 7, according to latest reports.