71 Percent Voting Recorded in Kerala Till 6 PM
The Assembly polls will take place in Kerala on 16 May. Counting for votes will take place on 19 May.
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- 71 percent votes recorded till 6PM.
- In a first, the Kerala governor votes in the assembly polls.
- UDF and LDF fight it off, while BJP hopes to open account.
- Congress remains confident of victory.
Voting began at 7 AM on Monday in the assembly polls to elect 140 new legislators to the 14th Kerala Legislative Assembly.
Kerala recorded a voter turnout of 71 percent till 6 pm on Monday, the Election Commission said. The figure is a marginal drop from the 2011 polls, where the turnout was 75.12 percent.
The polls will decide the fate of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and his arch rival and nonagenarian VS Achuthanandan in the state.
Chandy said the ground situation is “no to BJP side” in the state. He added that BJP would fail to open account in the state, while also expressing confidence in a UDF victory.
The assembly polls also saw the transgender community come out to vote for the first time, reports CNN-News18.
Prominent leaders like CPM member Pinarayi Vijayan, Rajya Sabha member Suresh Gopi, ministers Shibu Baby John, PK Kunhalikutty and Sreesanth cast their votes early in the day. 70.35 percent voting was recorded till 5PM ; it ends at 6 PM.
Struggle Between UDF, LDF and BJP
Counting of votes in Kerala, where rival candidates fought a gruelling two-month campaign in peak summer, will be taken up on 19 May to decide the outcome of what is being described as ‘mini’ general elections.
The BJP-led NDA alliance, after a massive election campaign led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is seeking to make inroads in Kerala where the power has oscillated between the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the CPI-M led Left Democratic Front(LDF) for decades.
In Kerala, the ruling UDF and LDF, which had gone hammer and tongs at each other during the electioneering, are keeping their fingers crossed even as BJP is hoping to get a toe-hold. A total of 1,203 candidates, including 109 women, are contesting for the 140 assembly seats.
A total of 202 crorepatis are in the fray in Kerala assembly elections, while 311 have declared criminal cases against themselves, as per the latest survey.
Kerala polls saw P Sathasivam become the first Kerala Governor to exercise his franchise in elections to Parliament and Legislative Assembly.
Sathasivam had first registered himself as a voter earlier this month.
80 Percent Voter Turnout Expected
Polling slogs in Central Kerala due to continuous drizzle. Amidst massive campaigning by Election commission to bring out the voters, poll officials expect 80 percent turnout. The average turnout was hovering in the range of 75 percent in the past elections in Kerala, said chief electoral officer EK Majhi.
The cloudy skies and rains in some places appears not to have dented the interests of the voters as in most places people had come well before time.
A total of 1,203 contestants, including 109 women, are in the fray.
In all there are 21,498 regular polling booths and 148 auxiliary polling booths, of which there are 1,233 categorised as critical and including 119 booths that are in Maoist-influenced areas.
A record 1,11,897 polling officials and more than 52,000 personnel from the Kerala Police besides around 100 companies of central forces, 2,000 officials from the excise department and another 2,027 home guards is responsible to ensure the poll passes off peacefully.
Kannur district that is considered a Communist Party of India-Marxist stronghold and has seen numerous incidents of poll-related violence in the past has 1,042 critical booths and hence has maximum deployment of central forces.
United Democratic Front (UDF): Congress Leaders Show Confidence
Congress leader and former Defence Minister AK Antony, after casting his vote at Jagathy Govt High School in Trivandrum, said that he has no doubts of a UDF victory. He predicted more seats for UDF than last time and said BJP will not be able to open account in Kerala. Antony predicted a “hands-down”victory for Congress in assembly polls.
Antony said he is very clear of Congress securing more seats this year as compared to assembly elections in 2015.
Following Antony, Shashi Tharoor too arrived at an election booth in Thiruvanathapuram to case his vote.
If Congress comes to power fighting an anti-incumbency, it will be the first party to get a second term in Kerala elections.
BJP: Newest Entrant to the Two-Party Fight
Thiruvanathpuram, the capital of Kerala with Tamil and Tulu speaking Brahmin vote bank, is the best bet for BJP to open an account in the assembly. Four of the five top leaders in BJP Keralam are contesting from Thiruvanathpuram to rewrite history.
According to historians, the RSS attained a critical mass in Thiruvananthapuram after the Chala Market riots in the 1980s that began as a clash between Hindu and Muslim traders. BJP might be the ‘newest’ entrant to the usual two-party fight in Kerala but the RSS cadre has always been a strong force on the ground.
Rajya Sabha MP Suresh Gopi cast his vote at a polling booth in Thiruvananthapuram. Gopi was nominated for a Rajya Sabha seat by the BJP Kerala unit in the middle of the election campaigning. He has campaigned massively for the BJP Keralam in the last few weeks.
At 92, Achuthanandan Remains Most Popular LDF Leader
VS Achuthanandan, the most popular Communist Party (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) leader, remains a massive crowd puller. Even at the age of 92, he is liked across cross-sections and age groups of voters in Kerala.
With LDF maintaining a secrecy over who will be the Chief Ministerial candidate if the party comes to power, many in Kerala believe, that choosing between Pinarayi Vijayan the face of Kerala assembly elections and Achuthanandan, is the real battle for the CPM in Kerala.
(With agency inputs)
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Published: 16 May 2016,07:35 AM IST