Kerala Gears Up for Polls with 194 Candidates and Over 2.75 Crore Voters

Kerala heads to polls on Friday with 194 candidates vying for 20 Lok Sabha seats. Over 2.75 crore voters will cast their ballots, with polling starting at 7 am. EVMs and Braille voting machines will be used, along with webcasting for booth monitoring. Security has been beefed up with 66,303 personnel deployed. The UDF won 19 seats in 2019, while the LDF secured one. This election has been characterized by an active campaign focusing on various issues, including CAA, 'love jihad', and candidate selection.

A total of 194 contestants in 20 Lok Sabha seats are vying for voters' support as Kerala goes to the polls on Friday, after over a month of fierce campaigns by the CPI(M)-led ruling LDF, Congress-headed UDF, and the BJP-led NDA.

The Election Commission said there are over 2.75 crore voters in Kerala, and that polling will commence at 7 am on Friday.

The polling will begin after mock polls are conducted at 6 am in the presence of representatives of political parties to ensure that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are working properly, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sanjay Kaul said in a statement.

He said that 30,238 EVMs will be used in the state for this Lok Sabha election, and if any of the machines fail, reserve ones will be provided through the respective sector officers.

The EVMs have been delivered to the polling booths after a preliminary inspection, three-stage randomisation and mock polling was conducted to ensure that they are secure.

Braille voting machines have been provided for the visually impaired; ramps and wheelchairs have been arranged for voters with disabilities.

To ensure a free and transparent election, a webcasting system has been put in place for live monitoring of all booths in eight of Kerala's 14 districts, namely Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Palakkad, Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram, Kaul said.

In the remaining six districts, 75 per cent of the booths would be monitored by this system, he said in the statement.

The webcasting facility has been introduced to ensure transparent elections by preventing booth grabbing, distribution of money and fake voting, the statement said.

The visuals would be monitored live in the control rooms set up in the offices of the CEO and the Returning Officers of the 20 Lok Sabha seats, it said.

A monitoring system has been set up in the strong rooms and counting centres in the same way, it added.

Kaul also said 63,100 bottles of ink to mark the fingers of the voters to prevent fraudulent voting.

This time, there are 2,77,49,159 voters in the state out of which 1,43,33,499 are women and more than five lakh are first-time voters.

Besides them, there are 2,64,232 voters with disabilities and 367 heterosexual voters in the state, Kaul said.

He appealed to everyone to participate in the nation-building process by exercising their right to vote.

Kottayam constituency boasts the highest number of candidates at 14, while Alathur has the fewest at five. Notably, there are 13 candidates in Kozhikode and 12 each in Kollam and Kannur.

Of the total 194 candidates, 169 are men and 25 are women.

The Vatakara constituency stands out with the highest number of female candidates, at four.

The Election Commission said steps have been taken to ensure safe and peaceful polling by deploying 66,303 security personnel.

Kerala Police and Central forces are providing tight security for the voting in a total of 25,231 booths arranged at 13,272 places where 1,01,176 polling officials have been appointed for managing the election process, Kaul said.

The state has 437 booths manned only by women, 31 booths manned by youth below 30 years, six booths manned by staff who have disabilities, 316 ethnic polling booths and 131 theme-based booths, he said.

Police have been deployed throughout the state as per the instructions of the Central Election Commission.

As the curtains fell on public campaigning on Wednesday evening, marking the conclusion of the over-a-month-long, intense public campaigning, Kerala on Thursday witnessed a silent campaign before the state votes on Friday.

Two union ministers, a state minister, three actors and a few MLAs are among the total candidates who are trying their political luck this time. The BJP-led NDA is fielding the most number of women candidates at five.

Unlike the previous general elections, Kerala has seen a highly active and aggressive campaign. Diverse issues ranging from the implementation of the CAA, the allegations on the existence of 'love jihad', controversies surrounding 'The Kerala Story' movie, the Manipur violence, Rahul Gandhi's candidature in Wayanad, as well as alleged appeasement of minorities by various political parties, dominated the high-decibel public campaigns.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the UDF won 19 of the 20 seats, while the LDF had to settle for just a single seat.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)