The Hindu : Front Page : About 70 per cent polling in first phase

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 23, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

About 70 per cent polling in first phase

Kerala Bureau

Polling generally peaceful with no reports of serious violence from the districts

WOMEN POWER: Women voters queue up at Government Lower Primary School at Sankaramukham in the Nedumangaud constituency to cast their votes for the first phase of the Assembly elections on Saturday. — Photo: S. Mahinsha

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The polling percentage in the first phase of the Assembly elections in the State may cross 70 per cent.

Election officials said that the average polling percentage was nearly 72 per cent when data from 7,152 of the 8,449 polling stations were processed. This means that the polling percentage may go higher than that in the 2001 elections.

As per official figures, 63.86 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise in Thiruvananthapuram district. The polling percentages were around 70 in Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam and Idukki districts. Alappuzha recorded the highest polling percentage of 72.5 as per the latest figures.

The first phase of the elections covered 59 constituencies in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam and Idukki districts. As many as 409 candidates were in the fray. Polling was smooth and brisk in most of the 8,292 polling stations and 159 auxiliary polling stations after a dull start in the morning. There were hardly any queues in most of the polling stations as electronic voting machines made the process of casting votes faster. However, queues developed in some places towards the close of the polls at 5 p.m. In some places, polling was delayed on account of malfunction of the electronic voting machines.

BJP's presence

The BJP seemed to have withdrawn from contest in several constituencies for all practical purposes. Its agents were absent in many polling booths. However, high involvement of RSS and BJP activists were noticed in constituencies such as Thiruvananthapuram East.

Pala constituency, from where the Revenue Minister K. M. Mani was contesting, seemed to be cold-shouldering its candidates. Only about 57 per cent of the voters have cast their votes in the constituency. On the other hand, the Puthuppally constituency, from where Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was contesting, recorded a polling percentage of about 73 per cent.

Besides Mr. Chandy and Mr. Mani, the prominent persons who were in the fray in this phase of the elections included Agriculture Minister K.R. Gouri (Aroor), Minister for Water Resources Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan (Adoor), Minister for Cooperation M. V. Raghavan (Punalur), Labour Minister Babu Divakaran (Kollam), Minister for Rural Development C. F. Thomas (Changanassery), Tourism Minister K. C. Venugopal (Alappuzha), Minister for Civil Supplies Adoor Prakash (Konni), former Minister R. Balakrishna Pillai former speaker M. Vijayakumar (Thiruvananthapuram North), P. J. Joseph (Thodupuzha), Thomas Isaac (Mararikulam) and M. A. Baby (Kundara).

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