the party.

Her departure came before former acting Liberal Party director Andrew Bragg, who had previously been widely considered the frontrunner for Liberal preselection, bowed out of the race on Monday, declaring the party needed to pick a woman.

Liberal councillor Christine Forster and her wife Virginia Flitcroft at Thursday night's vote. ( AAP: Brendan Esposito )

Inside, candidates chatted and joked, welcoming voters into the club.

The Eastern Suburbs Rugby Union Football Club sits smack-bang in the middle of the leafy electorate, which takes in affluent suburbs such as Paddington, Woollahra, Double Bay and Bondi.

The club itself is a fertile breeding ground for Wallaby greats, and inside the Liberal heavyweights were flanked by bemused parents of the under-15s team, who were there for their presentation night.

Some were a little confused byall the media attention. "Are we at the right place?" one parent asked.

Where to now?

Mr Sharma now faces the challenge of keeping Wentworth in Liberal hands at the by-election, with early polling indicating the seat is not as safe as the 17.7 per cent buffer from the last federal election suggests.

The loss of Mr Turnbull as the popular local member, and the events that led to his ousting as prime minister, have added another factor to the contest.

Former Wentworth MP Peter King inside the rugby club building on Thursday. ( ABC News: Nick Sas )

Signs spruiking the Labor candidate Tim Murray and Greens candidate Dominic Kanak are already plastered all over the electorate.

Wentworth is one of only two federation electorates that have never been won by Labor.

ABC election