Heavy polling in India State Assembly elections |
With heavy polling on 6th April, curtains came down on elections in the Indian states of Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Union Territory of Puducherry. High turnout was recorded in elections to 475 seats in the southern and eastern regions of India. Voting was largely peaceful, barring sporadic clashes in West Bengal and Kerala. The highest provisional turnout was reported from Assam, where 82.28% voters exercised their franchise across 40 seats for its third and last phase. In West Bengal, where 31 seats went to polls in the third of eight phases, the provisional turnout stood at 77.68% and in Puducherry, where all 30 seats voted in a single phase, it was 81.64%. The Election Commission said 73.58% voting was reported for 140 assembly seats in Kerala and 71.79% for the 234 seats in Tamil Nadu. Both states had a single phase. The results of all five regions will be announced on May 2. In Tamil Nadu, DMK and the AIADMK traded charges of irregularities in the Coimbatore district. MNM chief Kamal Haasan alleged financial inducements to voters in Coimbatore. In neighbouring Kerala, where the Left Democratic Front (LDF) is attempting to secure a historic second straight term, stray incidents of violence and voting irregularities were reported. In West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged “blatant misuse” of central forces as the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and BJP accused each other of malpractices. Violence was reported from various parts of Hooghly, South 24 Parganas and Howrah districts where out of the 205 candidates in the race, only 13 are women. Voting was peaceful in Puducherry, which slipped into a political crisis shortly before the elections were announced after the Congress-led government fell due to defections. The Congress-led alliance and All India NR Congress-BJP coalition are facing off in the UT. In Assam, voting was smooth. Voting on 40 seats in lower Assam took place on Tuesday. Both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition and Congress-led alliance claimed victory.
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