More than 27.1 million voters in Kerala will go to the polls on Thursday, capping a hectic campaign by the Communist Party of India-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for the state assembly elections. The votes will be counted on May 4.
The number of voters is 13.2 million men, 13.9 million women, 273 transgender people, and more than 242,000 foreign voters in 140 electoral districts.
Chief Electoral Officer Rathan U Kelkar said all arrangements are in place to ensure a smooth and comfortable polling process. To ensure crowd management, each ward can accept only about 1,200 votes, he added.
In addition, more than 350 stalls are marked “pink” and will be run by women. Of the total voters, there are 460,000 first-time voters. Kelkar said that “sweets” will be provided to 200 first-time voters at selected booths in each district after registering their votes, to encourage them to continue exercising their mandate.
The CEO said 146,000 trained poll workers and over 76,000 police personnel would take charge at 30,471 polling stations across the state, adding that “critical” booths prone to violence would be given priority for security. Apart from state police personnel, 140 companies of central forces and 20 companies of police personnel from Tamil Nadu have also been appointed to man the stalls.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has deemed around 2040 polling stations “critical” and vulnerable to political clashes and communal unrest. Most of them are located in the northern regions. Kannur district has the highest rates with 771 stations, followed by Kozhikode with 312 stations, and Kasaragod with 238 stations.
Violence-prone booths have been classified into two categories – “sensitive” and “critical” – during the 2021 House of Representatives elections.
A booth has been set up deep inside the Periyar tiger reserve in Idukki district, for just six voters, and a nine-member team of polling officials and a rapid response team from the forest department has been sent to Pachakkanam in Perumad constituency, Election Commission of India (ECI) officials said.
Meanwhile, officials said that of the 1,45,598 senior citizens who applied for home voting, 1,40,177 (96.25%) exercised their right to vote. Furthermore, out of 62,159 applications from persons with disabilities, 60,705 (97.66%) used this facility. The European Export Credit Commission said a polling team with more than 2,500 members was responsible for the record high number of at-home voting.
The officials added that out of 34,140 people eligible for postal ballot under essential services, 32,113 (94.06%) exercised their right to vote. They said that 95.28% of more than 35,000 police personnel used postal ballots to vote.
Meanwhile, candidates and leaders across major fronts spent the last day of the ‘silent campaign’ interacting with voters and holding last-minute discussions with workers for polling day.
While the current LDF government headed by Pinarayi Vijayan is aiming for a third consecutive term in power, the United Democratic Front, which has remained in opposition for the past decade, is aiming to come to power on the back of “anti-incumbency sentiment”. The NDA, which has no representation in the outgoing Assembly, has also set a goal of coming to power in the state.
