Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 9:
Polling in all the 140 Assembly constituencies in Keralam commenced at 7 am on Thursday.
The voting began after completion of mock polling.
People started arriving early in the morning at the 30,495 polling stations in the state to avoid the hot weather that was likely to get worse as the day progressed.
Congress senior and Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan arrived early for voting with his wife and daughter at their polling booth in Paravoor constituency.
Similarly, BJP’s Vattiyoorkavu Assembly candidate R Sreelekha and Union Minister of State for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Tourism Suresh Gopi also showed up early for voting.
Polling was carried out amidst tight security arrangements which included deployment of over 76,000 security personnel and live monitoring of the election process by an extensive webcasting system.
Around 2.71 crore voters will decide the fate of the 883 candidates who are contesting from the 140 Assembly constituencies in the state.
The electorate comprises 1.32 crore men, 1.39 crore women and 273 transgender persons, along with over 2.42 lakh overseas voters, according to Election Commission (EC) figures.
In order to handle such a huge electoral exercise, the EC has deployed 1.42 lakh trained personnel.
The voters will also decide whether the LDF should secure a consecutive third term or if the UDF or NDA present viable alternatives.
The poll outcome will also indicate whether the state is headed towards a shift from the traditional pattern of governance which alternates between the LDF and the UDF as an assertive BJP has billed itself as a viable alternative to the CPI (M) and Congress headed blocs.
The election campaign, which lasted nearly a month, witnessed intense political exchanges and high-decibel rhetoric, with all three fronts engaging in sharp attacks and counter-attacks.