Today, Kerala is bracing itself for the outcome of the Assembly election as votes will be counted to decide the fate of 957 candidates. Left Democratic Front, United Democratic Front, National Democratic Alliance and others are the major alliances are in fray.
Early leads indicate a majority for the LDF, though the vote margins are razor-thin and could change. A victory for the Left front would mean a historic consecutive second term for the ruling party.
Security has been beefed up in north Kerala in view of the counting. The number of counting halls has in fact gone up from 140 last time.
Here are the latest updates from Kerala. For live updates on results of the other elections, follow Assam | Puducherry | Tamil Nadu | West Bengal. For constituency-wise results and maps, visit Assam | Kerala| Puducherry| Tamil Nadu | West Bengal.
K.K. Rema leads in Vadakara over LDF candidate
One of the talking points from trends till now has been the lead maintained by UDF-backed RMPI candidate K.K. Rema in Vadakara Assembly seat in Kozhikode.
She has a lead of over 550 votes against LDF's Manayath Chandran.
Ms. Rema is the widow of slain Revolutionary Marxist Party of India leader T.P. Chandrashekharan. Her candidacy has often been portrayed as an act of vengeance against CPI(M) workers who murdered her husband, a CPI(M) dissident.
Suresh Gopi leading in Thrissur
Actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi, who has contested under BJP ticket from Thrissur constituency, is leading for by a little over 300 votes against UDF candidate Padmaja Venugopal.
Mr. Gopi had failed to live up to expectations in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when T.N. Prathapan of the Congress earned a thumping victory. Ms. Venugopal, meanwhile, is fighting from a city that was her father's (former CM K. Karunakaran) long-standing political base.
LDF’s P. Balachandran, a popular face in the socio-cultural scene in the district, is trailing in the third spot.
The BJP, which has put the Thrissur seat in the A-plus category, had been adamant about fielding a candidate with a star image. Mr. Gopi had made a dramatic landing in a helicopter and marched to the Collectorate, accompanied by a motor rally, to file nomination papers.
'Metro-Man' leading in Palakkad
BJP's star candidate E. Sreedharan, popularly known as the 'Metro Man', has taken an early lead over UDF candidate and incumbent Shafi Parambil in Palakkad. The BJP had at one point projected the octagenarian as its CM candidate before retracting the statement.
Mr. Sreedharan is leading by over 1,500 votes in the initial round of counting.
In Malampuzha, LDF's A. Prabhakaran is leading by around 2,000 votes over NDA's C. Krishnakumar, and in Mannarkkad, UDF candidate N. Shamsuddin is leading by nearly 1,700 votes over LDF's K.P. Suresh Raj.
Nemom a ray of hope for BJP
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Kummanam Rajasekharan has taken a slender lead in Nemom constituency, the party's only sitting seat in Kerala. Mr. Rajasekharan, who was the former Governor of Mizoram, is the former president of the party's State unit.
He leads by 470 votes over CPI(M)'s V. Sivankutty. Congress's heavyweight candidate K. Muralidharan (son of former Chief Minister K. Karunakaran) is in the third place.
The BJP had won a seat in Kerala Assembly for the first time in 2016 when O.Rajagopal defeated Mr. Sivankutty by 8,671 votes at Nemom. That election was plagued by accusations that Congress had knowingly fielded a weak candidate to ensure that CPI(M) loses the seat.
Initial counting trend favours LDF
Initial counting trends appear to suggest a clear lead for the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala.
The ruling coalition is leading in at least 80 Assembly segments at 9 a.m.
Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) is a front runner in 58 constituencies. The National Democratic Front (NDA) is ahead in three constituencies.
Election authorities have enumerated only a fraction of the votes polled. The majority of them are postal ballots. The vote margins are razor-thin and could change.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy are among those who have established an early lead.
A counting unlike any other
Streets leading to the counting station at Govt Girls’ Higher Secondary School Ernakulam are empty and the police have put up barricades to prevent people from gathering. | Photo Credit: Thulasi Kakkat
With the State government taking a strict stance against crowding by the general public on the day of counting of votes, the streets leading to the counting station at Govt Girls’ Higher Secondary School in Ernakulam are empty and the police have put up barricades to prevent people from gathering.
Taking into account the surge in COVID-19 cases, the Election Commission of India had banned victory processions after the declaration of election results.
Additionally, the State govt. has made COVID-19 negative certificates mandatory for all personnel drafted in for counting and media persons covering the electoral event.
Slim initial lead for CM Vijayan in Dharmadom
Kerala Chief Minister and LDF candidate Pinarayi Vijayan is leading with a slim margin in Dharmadom constituency in Kannur, according to initial reports.
Kerala Chief Minister and CPI (M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan photographed after casting his vote at Pinarayi, Kerala, on Tuesday, April 6, 2021. | Photo Credit: C.P. Sajit
Health Minister K.K. Shailaja, who is contesting as LDF candidate from Mattanur constituency, too is leading with an initial 250-vote lead.
Illustrating the neck-to-neck nature of counting, UDF candidate from Kannur constituency, Satheesan Pacheini, took a lead in the first 15 minutes of counting. However, LDF candidate Kadanapally Ramachandran soon caught up with him, and is currently leading by 87 votes.
Who will Koduvally choose this time?
The battle is hotter this time in Koduvally with the presence of Indian Union Muslim League’s trump card and former minister M.K. Muneer against the sitting MLA and LDF-backed independent Karat Razak.
UDF's confidence stems from its excellent performance in the recent local body elections. The Koduvally municipality and the six other grama panchayats now stand with the UDF. The party is also hopeful that the controversies surrounding the gold smuggling case and the LDF candidate's alleged link to it will be rewarding for them.
For the LDF, the main hope is the increased number of dissidents within the IUML. The initial disagreements over Dr. Muneer’s candidature in Koduvally come as an advantage for the LDF. The constituency, where the UDF enjoyed continuous victory from 1957 to 2001, has weakened its resistance towards the Left, they claim.
It was in 2006 that the electorate first shocked the UDF. LDF-backed independent P.T.A. Rahim’s victory with a majority of over 7,500 votes had stunned the dominant party, and though the UDF’s V.M. Ummer captured the constituency in 2011 with a margin of over 16,000 votes, the electorate witnessed a ‘U’ turn again in the 2016 elections. LDF-backed independent Karat Razak captured the constituency with a thin margin of mere 573 votes against UDF candidate M.A. Razak.
Will Twenty20 play kingmaker in Perumbavoor?
A close race is expected in the battle for Perumbavoor constituency in Ernakulam.
The winner is likely to be decided by Chitra Sukumaran, candidate of the apolitical outfit Twenty20. Eldhose Kunnappilly, sitting MLA of the Congress, had won the constituency in 2016 by a margin of over 7,000 votes.
Twenty20 seems hopeful of making dents in the traditional vote banks of LDF and UDF this time. Their performance in the local body elections held in December (in which the party had won eight seats in Vengola panchayat) has fuelled the party's expectations.
The Congress camp has placed Perumbavoor among the few constituencies in Ernakulam in which it cannot predict a win. However, the campaign managers are hopeful that they will sail through in the last round.
Babu Joseph of the Kerala Congress (M) is the Left candidate while the Bharatiya Janata Party had fielded T.P. Sindhumol. The constituency had recorded 84.25% polling in the election held on April 6.
Testing times for UDF in Ernakulam
The counting of votes for Ernakulam Assembly seat, has started. The seat is long-considered as a UDF stronghold.
The constituency was represented by T.J. Vinod, the Ernakulam District Congress Committee president and former Deputy Mayor of Kochi, for the past one-and-a-half years. Mr. Vinod was elected as the legislator in a bypoll held in 2019 when the Congress fielded MLA Hibi Eden to the Parliament seat.
Mr. Vinod might continue the Congress legacy in the constituency but with a reduced margin.
Meanwhile, LDF has fielded Shaji George Pranatha, a publisher and social activist, to wrest back the seat.
The 2016 election witnessed Mr. Eden scripting an emphatic win in the constituency by a margin of over 21,000 votes. Of the 1,10,508 votes polled that time, Mr. Eden bagged the support of over 57,000 voters.
Number of postal votes go up in Kozhikode
The counting of votes for the 13 Assembly segments in Kozhikode district commenced at 8 a.m. today.
Unlike the 2016 elections, the number of postal votes has gone up this time.
The postal votes received in the district were over 63,000 — five times higher than that of the previous polls. As a result, the counting of votes polled in EVMs have started before before the completion of counting of postal votes. They are both taking place simultaneously now.
To adhere to the COVID-19 protocols, the number of polling booths have also gone up this time, which means that it takes about 20 to 25 minutes to finish a round of counting.
Although the first leads are expected to be known by 9 a.m., the declaration of final results will likely be delayed.
Employees deputed for counting duty reached their designated venues at 6 a.m. The officials, as per norms, took an oath of secrecy before the counting began.
Postal ballots first, EVMs to follow
The counting of votes is set to begin in a few minutes across Kerala.
The final arrangements are progressing in the 633 counting halls in 114 centres. The storage rooms where the electronic voting machines (EVM) were stored after the April 6 polls were opened at 6 a.m.
Evms being taken from strong room to counting hall in Thiruvananthapuram | Photo Credit: PRD
The counting of the postal ballots will start at 8 a.m. By 8.30 a.m., the counting of votes polled in the electronic voting machines (EVM) will also will begin.
Kerala had registered a voter turnout of 74.06% in the April 6 polls. Of the total electorate of 2,74,46,039 in the State, 2,03,27,893 exercised their franchise. The ECI had distributed a total of 5,84,238 postal ballots to various voter categories including 80-plus voters, persons with disabilities, COVID-19 patients, people employed in essential services and polling officials.
Kalamassery is a keenly-watched contest
The contest in the Kalamassery Assembly constituency is a keenly watched one with senior CPI(M) leader P. Rajeev of the LDF pitted against the son of sitting MLA V. K. Ebrahimkunju, V. E. Abdul Gafoor of the IUML as his closest rival.
The constituency has returned IUML's Mr. Ebrahimkunju to the Assembly on both occasions after the Assembly was constituted in 2011. There are seven candidates in the fray in 2021 and the fierce rivalry between the UDF and LDF for the constituency has made it a contest of note.
Mr. Ebrahimkunju is one of the accused in the Palarivattam flyover building scandal and the issue has pushed Kalamassery into the limelight across Kerala. P. S. Jayaraj of the BDJS, which is part of the NDA, is another key participant in the seven-cornered contest.
The voting percentage in 2016 was 81.29%. It came down to less than 80% in 2021, which was considered worrying by the incumbent political front. A total of 1,54,882 votes were polled in 2016 of which Mr. Ebrahimkunju had bagged 44.37% while A. M. Yusuf of CPM bagged 37.55%. BDJS' V. Gopakumar bagged 15.65% votes.
Quick look
The votes will be counted in 633 counting halls across 114 centres, Chief Electoral Officer Teeka Ram Meena said on Thursday. The counting of the postal ballots will start at 8 a.m., and the counting of votes polled in the electronic voting machines (EVM), at 8.30 a.m.
About 2.74 crore voters exercised their franchise on April 6 as Kerala went to polls where 69.95% turnout was recorded.
In Kerala, the BJP and the Congress promised to keep the Sabarimala shrine out of bounds for women of menstruating age citing tradition while the LDF quietened its stance fearing a Hindu backlash. A constituent of the LDF said ‘love jihad’ was a matter of concern.
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Kerala gears up for Assembly poll results
Kerala is bracing itself for the outcome of the Assembly elections on Sunday.
The counting for the 2021 Assembly elections is unlike any other in the State’s history. The celebratory atmosphere that marks the tallying of votes will be conspicuously absent due to the COVID-19 ban on public jubilation.
Party workers will confine displays of triumph and despair largely indoors. The tabulation of votes will take more time, given the many postal ballots. The long wait for the results since polling day on April 6 has put political parties on tenterhooks.
Pre-poll and post-poll surveys had given the Left Democratic Front (LDF) a lead over the Congress-led United Democratic Front (LDF) Opposition.
However, the UDF has stiffly contested the poll predictions.
Elaborate arrangements for counting in place in Kerala
The counting of votes polled in the April 6 Assembly elections in the State scheduled for May 2 is designed to be an elaborate exercise, given the need to strictly follow COVID-19 guidelines.
The votes will be counted in 633 counting halls across 114 centres, Chief Electoral Officer Teeka Ram Meena said on Thursday. The counting of the postal ballots will start at 8 a.m., and the counting of votes polled in the electronic voting machines (EVM), at 8.30 a.m.
The number of counting halls has in fact gone up from 140 last time, Mr. Meena said. The number of halls was increased as the Election Commission of India asked States to reduce the number of tables per hall from 14 to seven to meet physical distancing norms. This effectively means, three to four halls for each assembly segment.