Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry Assembly election LATEST Updates: The DMK and LDF both looked on course to attain power in Tamil Nadu and Kerala respectively with a majority, as per latest trends from Election Commission DMK president M K Stalin, who is set to become the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the first time, on Sunday thanked the people for voting his party to power and assured them that he would truthfully work for them Trends available from the Election Commission at 4:45 pm show that the CPM-led LDF and is likely to break the four-decade-old jinx of incumbent governments not getting re-elected. Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate for Kerala’s Palakkad Assembly seat, E Sreedharan, has lost to sitting MLA Shafi Parambil of Congress by nearly 7,403 votes Kerala former chief minister Oommen Chandy has retained his seat of Puthuppally in Kerala’s Kottayam district. The senior Congress leader won from his bastion by a margin of 8,504 votes against LDF’s Jaik C Thomas. Rajnath congratulated the duo after the latest trends from Election Commission showed the ruling Left is leading in Kerala, while the DMK and its allies are ahead in Tamil Nadu According to News18, Kerala health minister KK Shailaja has defeated Revolutionary Socialist Party candidate Illikkal Augusthy by a record margin of 61,000 votes. This is by far, the highest margin recorded in Kerala. N Rangaswamy-led AINRC has won in two seats taken the lead in three seats, while the BJP has won two constituencies and is leading in one seat. The DMK has bagged one seat, while Congress is leading in two seats. The DMK is leading in 118 seats while the AIADMK is ahead in 82 seats. The Congress and BJP are leading in 13 and four constituencies respectively. AIADMK’s V Ramu is leading from Katpadi, leaving senior DMK leader Durai Murugan trailing. DYFI national president PA Mohammed Riyas, also the son-in-law of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, is leading by a considerable margin of over 18,000 votes in Beypore Assembly segment in Kozhikode district. Power minister MM Mani is leading by a whopping margin of almost 38,000 votes in Udumbanchola. Meanwhile, state minister KK Shailaja is leading by a margin of over 23,500 votes in Mattannur. In the AIADMK bastion Edappadi, Chief Minister Palaniswami is leading by a margin of almost 20,000 votes. Transport minister MR Vijayabhaskar is ahead of DMK’s V Senthil Balaji with a difference of 478 votes in Karur. MK Stalin-led DMK is ahead in 108 seats, leaving behind AIADMK, which is leading in 80 seats. Pattali Makkal Katchi is ahead in nine seats, while the Congress and BJP are leading in 12 and three seats each. AINRC Chief N Rangaswamy is leading at the moment, with the party ahead in 6 seats. The BJP in two constituencies and the DMK and Congress in one seat each. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan leads by 3,351 votes in Dharmadom. CPM is leading 38 seats, while the Congress is ahead in 19 seats. The Congress said it will not participate in television debates on the day of counting of votes citing the massive surge in COVID-19 cases. Follow LIVE Updates on the Assembly election results The counting of votes will be overshadowed by the raging COVID pandemic, as the BJP seeks to consolidate its hold over more states and the Congress along with its allies attempts to regain turf. There will be 2,364 counting halls as compared to 1,002 halls in 2016 in 822 Assemble constituencies in view of the coronavirus guidelines, according to the Election Commission which had drawn flak from the courts over the conduct of polls during the pandemic. At least 15 rounds of sanitisation will be carried out at each centre, besides social distancing and other precautions, including a ban on gatherings, will be strictly followed during the counting by 95,000 officials, officials said. They said counting of votes will begin at 8 am and continue late into the night. As many as 1,100 counting observers will watch the process and candidates and agents will have to produce a negative COVID test report or double dose of vaccination certificate to get an entry. Exit polls have forecast a tight contest between the incumbent Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress and the BJP in the crucial West Bengal Assembly polls and put the ruling saffron combine ahead in Assam while projecting that the Left alliance will retain Kerala, a feat unseen in four decades. Follow LIVE Updates on the Assam, West Bengal Assembly election results For the Congress, the exit polls predicted that it may fall short in Assam and Kerala and lose in Puducherry to the Opposition alliance of AINRC-BJP-AIADMK. The poll results in the four states and the UT are also likely to reflect how the handling of the COVID pandemic has played on the voters’ mind. A single-phased election was held on 6 April in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and the Union Territory of Puducherry, when the COVID surge had begun in many of the states. Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are among the 11 states that account for 78.22 percent of the total active cases, according to the Health ministry. West Bengal will have the maximum number of 1,113 counting halls, Kerala 633, Assam 331, Tamil Nadu 256 and Puducherry 31, the EC said. In Tamil Nadu, both Dravidian parties — AIADMK and DMK — went into the election without their stalwarts, J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi. Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam will cement their position as successors of Jayalalithaa if the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (AIADMK) retains power though it faces an uphill task especially after the rout in the 2019 Lok Sabha election when the DMK-led alliance won 38 out of 39 seats. The AIADMK had scored successive wins in 2011 and in 2016, when Jayalalithaa bucked the anti-incumbency trend — the first by anyone in nearly three decades in the state. After a narrow defeat in the last Assembly election where several exit polls had predicted his party’s win, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief M K Stalin spearheaded a determined election campaign this time and vigorously toured the state to take on the ruling AIADMK. AIADMK ally BJP, which had not won any seat in the last polls, is contesting in 20 constituencies. Another AIADMK ally PMK is contesting from 23 constituencies. The Congress, an ally of the DMK, is in the fray in 25 Assembly segments. Actor-politician Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam-led combine is also in the fray. There are 75 counting centres across the state and all arrangements are in place to smoothly conduct the exercise, which would be monitored by observers, authorities said. In Kerala, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) is seeking to break the state’s four-decade-old trend of swinging between the communists and the Congress-led United Democratic Front. As many as 957 candidates, including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, 11 of his Cabinet colleagues, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, senior Congress leader Oommen Chandy, ‘Metroman’ E Sreedharan, former Union Minister K J Alphons and BJP State president K Surendran, among others, were in fray in the election to the 140 seats. The BJP, which had won one seat in 2016, is confident of garnering more seats this time The poll is significant for Kerala Congress (M) chief Jose K Mani who recently snapped decades-long ties with the UDF and joined hands with the Left front. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had camped in the state for several days and taken part in dozens of corner meetings and rallies, with the party hoping that the state will herald a turn in its electoral fortunes after a series of disappointments in recent years. In Puducherry, the AINRC-led NDA and the Congress-led Secular Democratic alliance are in a contest. While AINRC fielded candidates in 16 of the total 30 constituencies the BJP is contesting nine seats while the AIADMK is contesting five seats. The Congress-led government in the Union Territory had collapsed just before the elections. With inputs from PTI
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