'Festival of democracy' ends in Kerala with 67 per cent turnout, voters still in queues 

Thiruvananthapuram, April 26 (IANS) Voters in Kerala braved the heat to head out to polling stations in the single-day "festival of democracy" in the southern state on Friday, with a 67 per cent turnout recorded for the state's 20 Lok Sabha seats till the closing of polls at 6 p.m. but long queues of voters still present.  

The state's electorate totals 2,77,49,159 - 1,43,33,499 women, 1,34,15,293 men and 367 transgenders. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, there was a 77.67 per cent turnout.

At the end of the official close of polling time of 6 p.m., a 67 per cent voter turnout was registered, but according to reports, there were a good number of voters waiting in the queue at several polling booths. All voters who arrived in the booths by 6 p.m. were given a separate slip and will be allowed to cast their votes, irrespective of when they would be able to press the button on the EVMs.

The day-long poll process started on a high with voters queuing up even before polls opened at 7 a.m. and despite the scorching heat during the daytime, voters, including several elderly people, stood for long hours to cast their votes.

In the afternoon session, the turnout slightly dipped, but in the late evening, it picked up again and reports from election officials indicate that voting may extend till late evening, and it will only be after that the final tally will be known.

While polling was more or less uneventful, there were some incidents which included the deaths of seven people after voting. On the other hand, there were a few newlyweds who exercised their franchise soon after they tied the nuptial knot, while at Kozhikode, a bride-to-be came to cast her vote.

"I feel happy that I was allowed to cast my vote and now I am going straight to the wedding hall as the auspicious time is fast approaching," she said.

Some "fake voters" were also detected with police registering cases against 12 people across the state for indulging in voting for others.

The three political fronts that are fighting it out are the ruling CPI(M)-led Left, the Congress-led UDF and the BJP-led NDA. In 2019, the UDF won 19 seats, while the Left won the remaining one and the BJP-led NDA finished second at Thiruvananthapuram and a distant third in the remaining seats.

This time, Thiruvananthapuram, where Congress' Shashi Tharoor faced Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar of the BJP and of the CPI's Pannyan Raveendran, and Thrissur, where Congress's K. Muraleedharan, CPI's V.S. Sunil Kumar and BJP's Suresh Gopi were in the fray, witnessed keen triangular fights.

Other key contests in the state included Wayanad, where sitting MP Rahul Gandhi of the Congress faced CPI's Annie Raja, and state BJP chief K. Sudhakaran, Pathanamthitta, where sitting Congress MP Anto Antony contested against former Finance Minister T. M. Thomas Isaac of the CPI-M and the BJP's Anil Antony, son of veteran Congress leader A.K. Antony, and Alappuzha, where Congress General Secretary, Organisation, K.C. Venugopal, faced CPI's A.M. Ariff and BJP's Sobha Surendran

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan claimed that this time they will register a historic win, while Leader of Opposition V.D.Satheesan said the Congress-led UDF are all set for a clean sweep of winning all the 20 seats. However, both of them said in unison that the BJP-led NDA would only finish third in all the 20 seats, let alone winning.

--IANS

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