Preparations for poll day in full swing in Kerala

OVer 27.1 gazillion voters in Kerala testament head up to the polling booths on th, capping a frenetic run by the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for the state assembly elections. The votes will be counted on May 4.The electorate comprises 13.2 million men, 13.9 million women, 273 transgenders and over 242,000 overseas voters across 140 constituencies.Chief electoral officer, Rathan U Kelkar, said that all arrangements were in place to ensure a smooth and comfortable polling process. To ensure crowd management, each booth can accept only around 1200 votes, he added.In addition, over 350 booths have been marked “pink” booths and will be managed by women. Of the total electorate, 460,000 are first-time voters. Kelkar said that 200 first-time voters would be offered “halwa” at select booths in each district after registering their vote, to encourage them to keep exercising their mandate.146,000 trained polling staff and over 76,000 police personnel will take charge in the 30,471 polling booths across the state,said the CEO, adding that “critical” booths prone to violence would be prioritised for security. Apart from state police personnel, 140 companies of central forces and 20 companies of police personnel from Tamil Nadu were also set to man the booths.The Election Commission of India (ECI) deemed around 2040 stations as “critical” and prone to political clashes and communal flare-ups. Most of them fall in the northern districts. Kannur district has the highest with 771, followed by Kozhikode with 312, and Kasaragod with 238 stations.Violence-prone booths were classified under two categories —“sensitive” and “critical”— during the 2021 assembly elections.ECI officials said that a booth was 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 of the forest department have been deputed to Pachakkanam in the Peerumade constituency.Meanwhile, officials said that out of the 1,45,598 senior citizens who applied for home- voting, 1,40,177 (96.25%) exercised their franchise. Moreover, out of the 62,159 applications from people with disabilities, 60,705 (97.66%) used the facility. A polling team of over 2,500 members was responsible for the high home- voting record, said ECI.Officials added that out of 34,140 people eligible for postal ballots under essential services, 32,113 (94.06%) exercised their franchise. 95.28% of over 35,000 police personnel used postal ballots to vote, they said.Meanwhile, candidates and leaders across major fronts spent the final day of “silent campaigning” interacting with voters and conducting last-minute discussions with workers for polling day.While the incumbent LDF government headed by Pinarayi Vijayan is aiming for a third consecutive stint in power, the UDF, which has remained in the opposition for the past decade, has a goal to come to power on the back of ‘anti-incumbency sentiments’. The NDA, which doesn’t have representation in the outgoing assembly, has also set a goal of coming to power in the state.