Kerala all set for polls tomorrow

Kerala is all set to go to the polls to elect 13th Legislative Assembly of the state tomorrow.

The hectic campaign over the last two-three weeks, which saw national leaders including Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, LK Advani, Nitin Gadkari, Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat and Sitaram Yechuri, came to an end today by 5 pm.

A total of 971 candidates are in the fray, competing for 140 seats in the state Assembly. The total number of voters is 2,31,47,871 who will cast their votes in 20,785 polling stations. The polling will be held from 7 am – 5 pm and the counting of votes will be held on May 13 as per the election schedule. The electronic voting machines will be engaged in all the polling stations.

Voter ID card is a must to cast vote and there will be a helpdesk of the Election Commission to help the voters who have lost their ID cards. Around 40 companies of Central armed forces, apart from the Kerala police, are in place to ensure a smooth conduct of voting.

The main political contest is between the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and CPI (M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) with BJP trying to open its account in the state Assembly.