The Election Commission (EC) has attributed the 78.27 per cent voter turnout in the Kerala polls to a successful SIR, but the Opposition sees it as a nod to change driven by a strong anti-incumbency wave and minority consolidation in favour of the Congress-led UDF.
However, the CPM, which leads the LDF government, is confident of a hat-trick despite being mired in corruption allegations. The BJP hopes to win at least two seats.
On Friday evening, the EC said the voter turnout rose 7.5 per cent from the 2021 Assembly poll figure and that 81.19 per cent women voters exercised their franchise, setting a record.
A senior Congress MP told The Telegraph that the voters were determined to bring change. “The voters had decided that under no circumstances should chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan achieve a hat-trick in power,” the MP said.
Prabhash, a former professor of politics at the University of Kerala, said: “The voters were determined this time to vote out the Left government. The BJP might win Nemom and Kazhakoottam, which saw two former Union ministers, Rajeev Chandrasekhar and V. Muraleedharan, respectively, in the fray.”
Brushing aside Opposition claims, CPM state secretary M.V. Govindan told reporters in Kannur on Friday that Vijayan would return to power with an impressive majority, bettering the party’s 99-seat tally in 2021.
Kerala chief electoral officer Rathan U. Kelkar tied the high turnout to a successful SIR that weeded out deceased voters and those who had moved abroad.