THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: All 140 assembly segments in Kerala are going to the polls on Tuesday. The election commission is in the final phase of arrangements for the exercise involving a total of 2.74 crore voters.
The ruling LDF is hoping for a second term contrary to the electorate's trend of electing Congress and CPM-led governments alternately. The UDF strongly believes that multiple factors, ranging from the anti-incumbency wave to corrupt deals and unrest among the unemployed youth, would work in its favour. The NDA is working hard for an increase in its seat share from just one in the current house.
The three fronts were busy canvassing votes on Monday though open campaigning ended by Sunday evening. Amidst various leaders hitting the headlines with scathing criticism of opponents, KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran struck a different chord when he sought the LDF's support at Manjeswaram to defeat the NDA candidate there -- BJP state president K Surendran. The confusion among party workers settled only when senior Congress leaders Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala rejected Mullappally's proposal.
BJP leader and Union minister V Muraleedharan kicked up a row over the Thalassery seat when he said his party workers would vote for independent candidate COT Naseer. The BJP is not contesting the seat as its candidate's affidavit was rejected in the scrutiny. Muraleedharan's comment, however, has not gone down well with district committee leaders who retracted their support after Naseer rejected the offer.
The state police will deploy 59,292 personnel, including 24,788 special police officers. Areas under the 481 police stations have been categorised into 142 election sub-divisions. The officers include 4405 sub-inspectors, 784 inspectors, 258 DySPs and 34,504 persons in the ranks of civil police officer and senior civil police officer.
A total of 140 companies of central paramilitary forces will also be on duty. The central forces are equipped with automatic guns and trained to deal with mob violence. This is the first time that such a large number of central forces are deployed in the state. They include personnel of the CISF, CRPF and BSF.
Drones will be used to check whether people are gathering in violation of the rules or blocking voters. Visuals collected through drones will be sent to the patrolling parties for immediate action. Of the total 2.74 crore voters, 1.32 crore are men, 1.41 crore women and 290 transgenders.