Lok Sabha elections: Kerala records voter turnout of 67.08 per cent

Polling in the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala concluded on Friday, with the state registering a turnout of 67.08 per cent. The election process was held amidst tight security arrangements in the state. However, a few instances of bogus voting and breakdowns of electronic voting machines (EVMs) were reported in some booths of the state, local media website Onmanorama said in a report.
The voter turnout in the state was 12.26 per cent at 9.20am. It rose to 16 per cent at 10am and 19.06 per cent at 10.20am, respectively.
At 1pm, the state recorded a polling percentage of 39.26 whereas 51.64 per cent of polling was recorded until 3pm.
At least 27.7 million voters are eligible to vote for 194 candidates in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Kerala. Among these, at least 500,000 are first-time voters.

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The prominent candidates who are contesting the polls include former finance minister TM Thomas Isaac from the LDF, Devaswom minister K Radhakrishnan, former health minister and MLA KK Shailaja, former agriculture minister VS Sunil Kumar, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, CWC member KC Venugopal, Union ministers V Muraleedharan and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, CWC member Shashi Tharoor from the UDF, and BJP state president K Surendran.
Speaking about polling in Kerala, chief electoral officer Sanjay Kaul said that all arrangements were made across the 25,231 polling stations in the state. “There are 555 polling booths where all personnel are women and 10 booths where all personnel are differently-abled. A total of 62 companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) have been deployed in the state to monitor security arrangements,” he said.
Prominent personalities, including senior politicians and candidates contesting the Lok Sabha polls, popular actors, and heads of church, turned up in the first half of Friday to exercise their franchise.
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Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan, BJP state president K Surendran, saffron party candidates Suresh Gopi and Anil Antony as well as Congress’ K C Venugopal and Shafi Parambil were seen casting their votes early in the morning.
Besides them, Congress stalwart A K Antony, KPCC president K Sudhakaran, LDF convener E P Jayarajan and CPI(M)’s Thomas Isaac were also seen in voters’ queues
Leaders of the CPI(M)-led LDF, Congress-led UDF and the BJP-led NDA claimed that their respective fronts will create history in Kerala.
CM Vijayan claimed that Kerala will “gift” a historic win to the LDF. Meanwhile, responding to queries from reporters about the BJP’s claim of getting double-digit seats in Kerala, the CM said the saffron party will not even get one seat.
In the 2019 elections, the UDF won 19 of the state’s 20 seats, while the LDF won 1 seat. The BJP-led NDA has never been able to win a seat in the state. The voter turnout in the state in 2019 was 77.84%.
(With PTI inputs)