A day after the polling for the crucial Assembly election, parties in Kerala spent Tuesday examining possibilities of victory and defeat amidst the confidence, anxiety and confusion caused by the exit poll results even as the Election Commission confirmed the final voter turnout as 77.35 per cent, a bit higher than the 75.12 percent voter participation recorded in the 2011 polls. Counting of votes will take place on Thursday.
As per the final figures released by the poll panel, Kozhikode district in northern Kerala recorded the highest turnout of 81.89 per cent while southern Pathanamthitta district saw the lowest voter appearance at polling booths at 71.66 per cent. Twelve of the total 14 districts in the State recorded turnouts of above 75 per cent while two districts saw above-80 per cent turnout.
Among the 140 constituencies, Cherthala in Alappuzha district in south-central Kerala saw the highest voter turnout at 86.30 per cent and Thiruvananthapuram where former Indian cricketer S Sreesanth is the NDA candidate, recorded the lowest — 65.19 per cent. As many as 37 constituencies saw above-80 percent turnout.
leaders of the CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF said the fact that all the constituencies with high voter turnout were in the districts north of Alappuzha gave them immense confidence of winning the election with a huge majority. Northern Kerala districts, except Muslim-majority Malappuram, are generally known as left strongholds.
leftist leaders said they did not want to attach much importance to the exit poll results — most of which predicted big win for the lDF – but these could be considered as “an indication of the general trend”. A CPI(M) candidate in Kozhikode district said, “Forget the 105-seat exit poll prediction… The lDF will win more than 85 seats out of the total 140.”
Top CPI(M) and CPI leaders spent almost entire Tuesday at their party offices analysing the poll data brought in from the booths by party workers. “The communists have a perfect system for doing this. Calculations of the UDF (led by the Congress) are based on mere guesswork of its leaders,” said Satheesh Babu, a Thrissur-based poll-watcher.
Rejecting almost totally the predictions of the exit polls, State Congress president VM Sudheeran reiterated that Kerala would see the UDF continuing its rule after Thursday. “The Congress is absolutely confident about victory. The left is depending on the exit polls for psychological comfort. They can have that relief till Thursday,” he said.
According to Sudheeran, the left was nowhere in the picture during the last days of campaigning. “It was a direct fight between the NDA under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Congress-led UDF. I am certain that the BJP won’t open account this time also. I don’t want to make predictions on the seats the UDF is going to win,” Sudheeran added.
Industries Minister PK Kunhalikutty of the Muslim league, second biggest UDF partner, rejected reports on large-scale vote-flow from his party into the lDF’s kit in the context of the threat posed by the BJP-led NDA. However, league leaders secretly admitted that voting pattern in some seats known as party strongholds might need scrutiny.
State BJP president Kummanam Rajasekharan alleged that the UDF and lDF had played annihilation politics against the NDA in this election. The two fronts had joined hands against the NDA in all the 140 constituencies, he said. The Kerala NDA hopes to win a minimum of twelve seats in this election though the maximum the exit polls have predicted for it is eight.
Senior BJP leader and former Union minister O Rajagopal, party candidate in the Nemom seat, alleged that the UDF and lDF had joined hands in his constituency to defeat him. “I am sure that cross-voting has taken place in Nemom,” Rajagopal said, adding that he would win the seat with a margin of at least 8,000 votes.