KOCHI: Though the spike in voting percentage has triggered speculations about the assembly election trend, it seems the actual polling in Ernakulam has been similar to the 2021 election.
Political parties are analysing booth-level data to study and evolve an idea about the trend, but it seems the revision of votes has led to a decrease in the number of valid votes.
“The Special Intensive Revision has been almost perfect in the district. The deletion of deceased people and avoiding duplication have cleaned up the voters list.
The actual number of voters in the previous voters list was below 90% and the maximum voting percent was 75 to 80%. With the revision, the percentage of valid votes went up and this reflected in the polling percentage,” said political observer P Sujathan.
While the number of voters has recorded a decline in all constituencies, the number of votes polled was better than 2021 in constituencies like Aluva, Kalamassery, Paravur, Perumbavoor, Kunnathunad and Muvattupuzha. Constituencies like Tripunithura (23,791), Ernakulam (28,418), Thrikkakara (17,726), Piravom (16,647) and Kochi (16,248) recorded the maximum deletion in voters list.
“The SIR has recorded a decline in the number of votes in South Kerala, but in Malabar region, the number of votes has increased. Some Muslim organisations had created awareness among the community members on the need to cooperate with the SIR process, which led to the increase in votes,” said political observer A Jayashankar.
“But in south and Central Kerala, the political parties were not keen about the process. Though the UDF has an edge, the increase in polling percentage does not indicate any trend,” he added.
“The rise in polling percentage is due to deletion of votes through SIR. But there are indications of consolidation of Hindu votes in favour of the BJP, particularly in southern districts and Palakkad. The impact of this consolidation will set the trend for future elections. The impact will be visible in around 16 constituencies,” said Sujathan.