71.7% polling in Kerala, TN registers 69% turnout

Election office sources said 71.7 per cent is the tentative polling percentage and it was likely to go up to 75 per cent after finalisation of voter turnout. Around 2.60 crore people were eligible to vote for the 140-member Assembly.

Congress-led ruling UDF and CPI-M headed opposition LDF are in a neck and neck electoral fight in the state where BJP is striving hard to make a maiden entry into the assembly.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Opposition leader and 93-year-old CPI-M veteran VS Achuthanandan, CPI(M) politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan, 83-year-old Kerala Congress(M) supremo and former Finance Minister KM Mani were among the 1,203 candidates in the electoral arena.

For Chandy, this was the 11th consecutive straight contest from Puthupally, while for Mani, it was the 13th stint from Pala.

Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan, said to be LDF’S Chief Ministerial candidates, contested from Malampuzha and Dharmadam respectively.

Kerala has a total electorate of 2,61,06,422, of which female voters number 1,35,08,693 and males 1,25,10, 589. There are two members of third gender in the electoral rolls.

Except for stray incidents of violence, no major incidents were reported from any part of the state, police said.

Due to rains in some parts of Kerala, polling which was slow in the initial hours, picked up in the afternoon touching 71.7 per cent at close.

People were seen queueing up in various booths in the state, much before polling began this morning, especially in some coastal areas.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu recorded a voter turnout of a little over 69 per cent in Assembly elections at the end of 5 pm as rural voters seemed more enthusiastic than their city counterparts in exercising their franchise, going by available statistics.

As many as 69.19 per cent of voters in 232 Assembly segments had cast their votes by 5 pm, electoral authorities said even as there was a dip in the pace of polling after 3 pm.

“Voting pace came down after 3 pm and it was not as high as it was in the morning,” Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Lakhoni told reporters.

He was responding to a query on polling percentage showing an increase of just around six per cent between 3 pm (63.70) and 5 pm, despite EC’s massive efforts to ensure high voter turnout by way of its #Mission100percent campaign.

Rural segments in Dharmapuri such as Pennagaram put up a good show, Lakhoni said, adding Chennai district seemed to be heading towards the lowest polling percentage in the current hustings.

The Harbor constituency here polled just around 53 per cent whereas Pennagaram in Dharmapuri around 85 per cent till 5 pm, he said.

“This (voting percentage) is the hard fact. We will have to analyse the reasons behind it,” he said.