At 67.48%, Kerala polling dips from ’19
According to the Election Commission data, the highest voter turnout was recorded in Kannur at 75.57% and the lowest in Pathanamthitta at 63.34% at 6:45 pm
Kerala recorded a provisional voter turnout of 67.48% on Friday across all the 20 constituencies during the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission said. The state’s turnout was 77.84% in the 2019 polls.
According to the Election Commission data, the highest voter turnout was recorded in Kannur at 70.76% and the lowest in Pathanamthitta at 60.85%.
Wayanad, where Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is contesting, recorded 72.62% while Thiruvananthapuram, where the Left Democratic Front, United Democratic Front and BJP-led National Democratic Alliance are locked in a triangular fight recorded 64.14%.
Constituencies in north Kerala recorded higher polling compared to central and southern parts of the state. While gates of all polling booths across the state were closed at 6 pm, those standing in the queues before the deadline were distributed tokens in order to exercise their franchise.
Local TV channels showed visuals of long queues at many booths across the state even at 6pm, hinting that a large section of the voters stepped out to vote in the evening to escape the extreme heat conditions. The IMD had issued yellow alert in 12 districts of the state, warning of high temperatures and humidity levels.
Polling in the state, that began at 7 am across 25,211 stations in 14 districts, was largely peaceful. There were sporadic incidents of malfunctioning of EVMs, allegations of bogus votes and skirmishes between workers of political parties in some areas.
Leader of Opposition and Congress leader VD Satheesan alleged that the state did not witness a “free and fair” election while demanding “an investigation into the low voter turnout”.
“Voters returned after waiting for hours in many booths in scorching heat. Many of those who returned did not even get a chance to vote. In many places, people could not vote despite reaching the polling station before 6 pm,” Satheesan said.
He alleged that the polling was conducted in such a way “raising suspicions about serious negligence” on the part of officials. “The decline in voter turnout was due to apathy at the bureaucratic level,” he said.
In Nadapuram assembly segment of Kozhikode district, presiding officers of two booths were changed by the returning officer after they allegedly made errors in following guidelines with respect to open votes.
Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, state Congress chief and the party’s Kannur candidate K Sudhakaran, state BJP chief and Wayanad candidate K Surendran were among those who voted in the first two hours of polling on Friday.
Vijayan, after casting his vote at a polling booth in Pinarayi of Kannur district, said: “The state will give the LDF a historic victory”.
“Across the country, there is a visible public movement against the BJP. The BJP has no acceptability in Kerala. Even though they ran a huge campaign here, they will not even land in the second position in any of the 20 seats,” he said.
At the same time, BJP state chief K Surendran claimed there was a mood “in favour of the BJP and the (Narendra) Modi government” in the state. “There is strong positive voting this time where people are signalling support for the development vision of the PM. There are strong sentiments of anger and frustration among the public against both the LDF and UDF,” he said.
Meanwhile, heads of Christian denominations in the state urged the public to vote. “The church wants everyone to live peacefully in the country,” Archbishop Raphael Thattil of the Syro-Malabar Church told reporters after casting his vote.
Thrissur Archbishop Andrews Thazhath said he was “pained to see the situation in Manipur”, where ethnic violence since May last year has led to over 220 deaths.
“We get hurt when we see others getting hurt. I saw the situation in Manipur. I have asked the government and the Union home minister (Amit Shah) to intervene,” he told reporters.
In the 2024 elections, there were 27.7 million eligible voters in Kerala, including 500,000 first-time voters. There are 194 candidates in the fray across 20 constituencies.
In the 2019 elections in the state, the Congress-led UDF romped home with wins in 19 out of 20 seats while LDF won one seat. The BJP has never won a Lok Sabha seat in the southern state.
