Thiruvananthapuram, June 4 (UNI) The counting of the votes polled in April 26 Lok Sabha elections in 20 seats in Kerala began at 8 am on Tuesday amid tight security.
The counting of postal votes and votes polled in EVMs began in all the counting centres in the State. Kerala witnessed high-profile contests in Wayanad, Pathanamthitta, Thiruvananthapurm, Alappuzha, Attingal and Thrissur constituencies.
In Wayanad, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi contested against CPI’s Annie Raja and BJP’s state president K Surendran. In Thiruvananthapuram, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor fought against NDA candidate and Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
In Pathanamthitta, Anil Antony, son of senior Congress leader and former union defence minister AK Antony, fought against CPI(M) leader and former Kerala finance minister Dr Thomas Isaac and sitting Congress MP Anto Antony.
Former Rajya Sabha member and actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi contested from Thrissur against Congress leader K Muraleedharan and former state agriculture minister VS Sunil Kumar of CPI.
In Alappuzha, AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal fought against sitting MP of CPI(M), AM Ariff and BJP leader Sobha Surendran. Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan contested from Attingal against Congress MP Adoor Prakash and VP Joy of CPI(M).
A few constituencies witnessed a three cornered fight between the Congress-led UDF, the ruling CPI(M)-led LDF and BJP-led NDA which is yet to open the account in Kerala. The BJP has turned the electoral battle into a three-horse race in Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta, Thrissur and Palakkad.
Kerala recorded 71.27 percent polling in the Lok Sabha election on April 26 in the State. Out of the total 27,749,158 voters in the state, 19,777,478 voted through electronic voting machines on April 26. Among these, 9,475,090 were male voters, 10,302,238 were female voters, and 150 were transgender voters.
In the absentee voter category, 180,865 votes were recorded, and in the category for officials on election duty, 41,904 postal votes were recorded.
The highest polling was in the Vadakara constituency with 78.41 percent, where 1,114,950 voters cast their votes. The lowest was in the Pathanamthitta constituency with 63.37 percent, where only 906,051 of 1,429,700 voters cast their votes.
Absentee voters include those over the age of 85, voters with disabilities, those affected by COVID-19, and essential service workers. This includes those who voted from home and those who reached the Voter Facilitation Centers (VFC).
Here are the absentee voter figures by constituency: Thiruvananthapuram-8006, Attingal-11883, Kollam-8599, Alappuzha-11842, Mavelikara-12049, Pathanamthitta-12138, Kottayam-11965, Idukki-7728, Ernakulam-5531, Chalakudy-4339, Thrissur-9133, Malappuram-6013, Ponnani-5330, Palakkad-7630, Alathur-8936, Kozhikode-9524, Vadakara-10059, Wayanad-8100, Kannur-12521, Kasaragod-9539.
The number of postal ballots for officials on election duty is 41,904. The figures for postal votes per constituency are as follows: Thiruvananthapuram-3449, Attingal-2227, Kollam-3468, Alappuzha-3162, Mavelikara-3525, Pathanamthitta-1918, Kottayam-2413, Idukki-1107, Ernakulam-1185, Chalakudy-1428, Thrissur-1931, Malappuram-1007, Ponnani-1117, Palakkad-1668, Alathur-1843, Kozhikode-2341, Vadakara-2800, Wayanad-1477, Kannur-2384, Kasaragod-1454.
For service voters, 57,849 military personnel have applied, and 8,277 votes have been sent as of April 27. Service votes will continue to be accepted until the counting begins.
In this Lok Sabha election, 30,238 electronic voting machines were used in the state. A total of 63,100 bottles of ink were used to prevent fraudulent voting during the election.
Kerala recorded 77.67% polling in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and 74.06% in the 2021 Assembly elections.
In the 2019, the Congress-led UDF won 19 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala. The CPI(M)-led LDF had to settle for just a single seat. The BJP-led NDA having 13 % vote share could not win any seat.
The election results will be available in real-time on the Election Commission’s website and the Voter Helpline app.
The election results will be accessible live through the website https://results.eci.gov.in, using the Election Commission’s ENCORE software.
As each round of vote counting is completed, the results will be directly provided by the Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) from the counting centers, and this real-time data will be available on the website.
This is the first time in a Lok Sabha election that results from all constituencies in the country will be made available through a unified system.
Real-time information will also be accessible through the Election Commission’s Voter Helpline app. By clicking on the “Election Results” menu on the home page, users will be directed to the “Trends and Results” page, where detailed information about the results will be available.
The Voter Helpline app can be downloaded and used from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. Media centers have been set up at all counting centers in the state.
Election results by Lok Sabha constituency will be available on digital display boards at these centers.
The trial of the Election Commission’s ENCORE software, which will be used for centralized result announcement by making the vote counting results available in real-time on the computer network, was successfully completed on Friday last.
List of candidates in all 20 seats in Kerala are given below.
Kasaragod
INC Rajmohan Unnithan
CPI(M) MV Balakrishnan
BJP ML Ashwini
Kannur
INC K. Sudhakaran
CPI(M) MV Jayarajan
BJP C Raghunath
Vatakara
INC Shafi Parambil
CPI(M) K. K. Shailaja
BJP Prafulla Krishna
Wayanad
INC Rahul Gandhi
CPI Annie Raja
BJP K Surendran
Kozhikode
INC MK Raghavan
CPI(M) Elamaram Kareem
BJP MT Ramesh
Malappuram
IUML ET Mohammed Basheer
CPI(M) V Vaseef
BJP M Abdul Salam
Ponnani
IUML Abdussamad Samadani
CPI(M) K.S. Hamza
BJP Niveditha Subramanian
Palakkad
INC VK Sreekandan
CPI(M) A Vijayaraghavan
BJP C KrishnaKumar
Alathur (SC)
INC Ramya Haridas
CPI(M) K. Radhakrishnan
BJP TN Sarasu
Thrissur
INC K Muraleedharan
CPI VS Sunil Kumar
BJP Suresh Gopi
Chalakudy
INC Benny Behanan
CPI(M) C Raveendranath
BDJS KA Unnikrishnan
Ernakulam
INC Hibi Eden
CPI(M) KJ Shine
BJP KS Radhakrishnan
Idukki
INC Dean Kuriakose
CPI(M) Joice George
BDJS Sangeetha Vishwanathan
Kottayam
KC(J) K Francis George
KC(M) Thomas Chazhikadan
BDJS Thushar Velapally
Alappuzha
INC KC Venugopal
CPI(M) AM Ariff
BJP Sobha Surendran
Mavelikara (SC)
INC Kodikunnil Suresh
CPI CA Arun Kumar
BDJS Baiju Kalasala
Pathanamthitta
INC Anto Antony
CPI(M) Thomas Issac
BJP Anil Antony
Kollam
RSP NK Premachandran
CPI(M) Mukesh Madhavan
BJP G Krishnakumar
Attingal
INC Adoor Prakash
CPI(M) V Joy
BJP V Muraleedharan
Thiruvananthapuram
INC Shashi Tharoor
CPI Pannyan Raveendran
BJP Rajeev Chandrasekhar
