Brisk polling in south India states
Brisk polling was reported in the first few hours of balloting in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry where assembly elections are underway under heavy security on Wednesday.
While polling started at 7 am in Kerala, in Tamil Nadu it began at 8 am. People queued up across the two states and also in Puducherry to cast their ballots.
In both the states it is a close contest, poll pundits predict. After an acrimonious poll campaign, now the fates of M Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu and V.S. Achuthanandan in Kerala would be decided during the day.
The ruling DMK led by chief minister M Karunanidhi in alliance with Congress is pitted against J Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK in alliance with DMDK of actor Vijayakant in Tamil Nadu for the 234 assembly seats.
While All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has fielded candidates in 160 seats, the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) is contesting in 41 seats.
Karunanidhi-led Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) is fighting in 121 seats while ally Congress is fighting in 63 in their alliance. In the same alliance PMK is fighting in 30, VCK 10, KMK 7, IUML two and MMK one.
The total electorate in Tamil Nadu is 4.6 crore. Altogether 2,773 candidates are in the fray.
The big shots in this elections are chief minister M Karunanidhi and his sworn rival Jayalalithaa. All eyes will also be on Karunanidhi’s son M K Stalin and Jaya’s alliance partner DMDK leader and actor Vijayakanth.
While elections were peaceful till the early hours, both the ruling party and the opposition have accused each other of planning violence during polling in Tamil Nadu where more than 1lakh security personnel have been deployed.
Jayalalithaa accused DMK of casting false votes.
Tamil superstar Rajnikanth is one of the voters seen casting his ballot in Chennai on Wednesday.
In the 140-seat Kerala assembly polls, the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF)-led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) is pitted against the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) which did well in the last Lok Sabha polls in 2009.
The LDF currently controls a majority of 99 seats (out of the 140 seats) in the state legislative assembly.
Veteran CPI-M leader and chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan is also fighting this election.
In Kerala a total of 971 candidates are in the fray. The total electorate is 2.31 crore.
In the 30-seat Puducherry union territory, the fight is between the ruling Congress and its ally DMK and the alliance of AIADMK with All India N. R Congress (AINRC).
AINRC is floated by former Congress chief minister N Rangasamy.
Congress is fighting in 17 constituencies and its ally DMK in 10. PMK is contesting two while VCK is fighting one.
In the rival camp, All India NR Congress is contesting 17 seats while ally AIADMK has fielded candidates in 10. CPI, CPI-M and DMDK have fielded candidates in one seat each.
Puducherry has a total electorate of 8.05 lakh.
A total of 187 candidates are in the fray this time. Of them 162 are in Puducherry district which consists of Puducherry, Mahe and Yanam. The rest are in Karaikal district.
