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Voting in 475 seats across 5 states: Biggest day of elections cycle today
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held 24 election rallies in the five regions till April 3 and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed 23, of which 15 were in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Nearly 100 million people will vote on Tuesday to elect candidates in 475 assembly seats across four states and one Union territory, in what is the biggest election day since the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Tuesday will also mark the end of the current election cycle in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry — where all seats will vote in a single phase — and the eastern state of Assam, which will see the last of its three phase polls. Only West Bengal, which will vote in its third phase, will have five more rounds of elections. The results of all five regions will be announced on May 2.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held 24 election rallies in the five regions till April 3 and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed 23, of which 15 were in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
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Voters will exercise their franchise in all 234 seats in Tamil Nadu, which is in the middle of its first assembly election after the death of two Dravidian stalwarts and former chief ministers, M Karunanidhi of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and J Jayalalithaa of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). The DMK-led alliance is looking to unseat the AIADMK government after being out of power for 10 years.
Around 62 million voters in the state will vote across 88,937 polling stations with the election commission extending voting time by one hour to enable those suffering from Covid-19 to vote. “The body temperature of all voters will be taken and those with fever will be asked to come between 6 and 7pm and vote wearing PPEs,” health secretary J Radhakrishnan said.
Close to 417,000 security personnel will be deployed in the state, which has a million more women voters than men, even though women representation in candidature is less than 10% for the main political parties. “The election commission has identified 537 critical polling stations and 10,813 vulnerable polling stations,” said chief electoral officer (CEO) Satyabrata Sahoo.
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Neighbouring Kerala is witnessing a fierce fight between the ruling Left Democratic Front, which is attempting to buck the trend of political parties swapping power every five years and return for a historic second consecutive term by beating the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). The 140 seats in the state have 957 candidates in fray, whose fate will be decided by roughly 27 million people.
A traditional third in the state’s bipolar politics, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -led National Democratic Alliance has also made some swift moves to stay afloat, including naming Metro Man E Sreedharan as its chief ministerial candidate. In a month-long campaign, political parties have clashed on contentious issues including allegations of gold smuggling against some officials in the chief minister’s office and the controversy around the entry of all women in to the Sabarimala Temple.
“Detailed guidelines have been issued for the political parties, for voters, officers to maintain the social distancing as well as to provide all the COVID kits at the polling booths,” said chief electoral officer Teeka Ram Meena.
For 30-member Puducherry assembly, a total of 1,004,507 electors will exercise their franchise to decide the fate of 324 candidates. The Union Territory slipped into a political crisis shortly before the elections were announced, when the Congress-led government fell due to defections.
In Assam, 40 out of the 126 seats will vote in the final phase. Over 7.9 million voters would cast their vote in 11,401 polling stations to decide the fate of 337 candidates. Ruling BJP has 20 candidates while its alliance partner Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and United Peoples Party Liberal (UPPL) will contest 13 and eight seats, respectively. The opposition Congress is contesting 24 seats and its alliance partners All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) have 12 and eight candidates, respectively.
In the third phase of polling in West Bengal, voting will take place for 31 seats that are set to witness a tough fight between the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and BJP, which is looking to come to power in the state for the first time. Seats in Hooghly, south 24 Parganas and Howrah districts will go to the polls. The state has five more rounds of polling left to go for the 294-member assembly.
