Thiruvananthapuram, Wednesday, April 13, 2011: Voting started this morning in all the 140 Assembly segments in Kerala, where the main fight is between the ruling CPI(M)-led LDF and the Congress-led UDF.

Brisk polling was reported during initial hours for the single-phase election in Kerala for deciding the electoral fortune of 971 candidates for 140 Assembly constituencies in the state. According to initial reports 50% polling has been reported in the state so far.

Thiruvananthapuram- 28.5%
Kollam- 34%
Pathanamthitta-32%
Alappuzha-44.8%
Kottayam-33%
Idukki-36.4%
Ernakulam-37%
Thrissur-40%
Palakkad-33.7%
Malappuram-32.8%
Kozhikode-56%
Kannur-40%
Kasargod-35%
Wayanad-37%

A total of 971 candidates are in the fray — many of them are independents. Over 1.25 lakh security personnel have been deployed for peaceful conduct of the voting in 20,578 polling stations.
Besides the state police, contingents from other states and central paramilitary forces had been deployed for smooth conduct of the elections.

Around 2.31 crore people, including 8862 NRIs, will exercise their franchise today. The campaigning for the elections had remained by and large peaceful but for sporadic clashes on the concluding day.

Prominent among those who exercised their franchise in the early hours include CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, Union Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran, Kerala Congress supremo KM Mani, Elamaram Kareem, G Sudhakaran , NK Premachandran (ministers), KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala, Panakkad Hyderali Thangal, PK Kunhalikutty, KV Thomas, union minister and Mar Andewz Thazath, Pinarayi Vijayan.

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.

State Election commission has identified 3,703 booths in Kerala as sensitive. Kannur district alone has 1257 sensitive booths.

The electronic voting machines will be engaged in all the polling stations. Voter’s 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 district wise list of number of voters in the state is listed below:-

1. KASARAGOD— 8,56,324
2. KANNUR1—- 7,23,441
3. WAYANAD—- 5,35,137
4. KOZHIKODE— 20,65,061
5. MALAPPURAM——- 25,55,363
6. PALAKKAD—- 19,42,628
7. THRISSUR—– 22,53,469
8. ERANAKULAM—– 22,04,800
9. IDUKKI— 8,13,382
10. KOTTAYAM—- 14,26,678
11. ALAPPUZHA—- 15,32,686
12. PATHANAMTHITTA —– 9,48,339
13. KOLLAM—- 19,05,078
14. THIRUVANANTHAPURAM—- 23,85,485