Election Results 2021: Counting of votes begins for 5 Assemblies amid India's COVID fight
The outcome of assembly polls is likely to have implications for politics at the national level.
FollowCounting of votes to the legislative assemblies of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and the union territory of Puducherry has begun. The first few hours will be for the counting of postal ballots.
The elections were held amid a surge in Covid-19 cases across the country – a second wave that has ridden the country to an unprecedented crisis.
On Thursday, as West Bengal completed its record eighth and final phase of voting, exit polls conducted by several television news networks predicted a neck-and-neck contest between the Trinamool and the BJP, relegating the Left-Congress alliance to a distant third.
In Tamil Nadu, all the surveys have predicted a DMK-Left-Congress alliance victory with one predicting it would win between 175-195 seats out of 234. In Assam and Kerala, most of the national surveys gave the BJP and the Left Democratic Front (LDF), respectively, a second term. For the LDF, if the surveys prove true, retaining power in Kerala will be historic as the state has traditionally voted out the incumbent. In Puducherry, the Congress is set to lose with surveys giving the AIADMK-BJP-NR Congress alliance the edge.
As is the norm, counting of votes begins with postal ballots. That takes up the first hour of counting. However, with the ongoing pandemic, the EC allowed Covid-19 positive patients to vote in the elections and in some parts postal votes were used. So, we can expect this election to have a larger amount of postal ballots.
The Election Commission, after a severe reprimand from the Madras HC, issued guidelines earlier this week, stating that no political candidate or agent will be allowed to enter the centre without a negative Covid-19 test or having received both doses of the vaccine. There are also guidelines on how many people can go to collect the result certificate from the Returning Officer. Election victory rallies have been banned across the country.
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