Verdict day for high stakes elections: Counting from 8am for four states, one UT

Votes across 823 seats in four states and a Union territory will be counted on Monday to determine the winners of assembly polls marked by record turnouts on the back of mass deletions of names from voter rolls and high-stakes contests with wider national political ramifications.

Counting will begin at 8am in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry in what will be the single biggest day of election results since the 2024 polls.

Three of the states – Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala – have never seen a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and represent the final frontier for the party.

In Tamil Nadu, the polls saw a turnout of 85.10% with exit polls predicting a break in the state’s usual Dravidian duopoly with the entry of actor-turned-politician Vijay. Most exit polls predict that the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) will return to power but one agency forecast that Vijay’s Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam could end up as the single-largest party ahead of the DMK, with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) a distant third. “All arrangements are in place, including a comprehensive three-tier security plan, for counting of votes at the 62 designated counting centres, chief electoral officer Archana Patnaik said. Approximately 125,000 personnel, which includes officials and micro-observers on vote-counting duty and police, have been deployed.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rules Assam and hopes to return to power for a third consecutive time; in Puducherry, it is attempting a second straight shot at forming the government. The elections are also a test of survival for regional leaders Mamata Banerjee who is seeking a fourth straight term, MK Stalin who is seeking a second consecutive term, and Pinarayi Vijayan who is seeking a third back-to-back term.

Counting will begin at 8am with postal ballots, followed by electronic voting machine counting at 8.30 am, with results updated in real time on ECINET and the official election portal. Votes will also be counted in bypolls for eight assembly seats across five states.

According to EC data, the two-phase Bengal polls saw a record turnout of93.05%, the highest in the state’s history. The elections were marked by the mass disenfranchisement of all but 1,600-odd people among the 2.71 million people flagged under the controversial logical discrepancy category in the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, also a dubious milestone in independent India’s history. Exit polls predict that the BJP is on course for a historic victory in a state defined by Banerjee’s dominance over the last 15 years. Both the BJP and the TMC have claimed that the high turnout will help them.

West Bengal chief electoral officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal said that all arrangements have been made for a peaceful and transparent counting process. “The counting of votes will be conducted in a free and fair manner. We are fully prepared; there will be no unrest anywhere. Tomorrow’s counting will take place peacefully,” Agarwal told reporters.