Thiruvananthapuram, April 11 (IANS) Kerala leaders have whipped out their calculators for number crunching after nearly three-fourths of the electorate cast their ballots in the parliamentary election.
Kerala's high voting percentage of 74.04 in Thursday's Lok Sabha poll has prompted political parties to come up with voting patterns and winnability formulae.
While the traditional foes, the United Development Front (UDF) and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) have claimed wins, even the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has never won even a legislative assembly seat in Kerala, is perked up with hope.
The UDF has normally done well when the voting percentage has been high. This was seen in 2009 (73.33 percent) when it won 16 seats and in 1991 (73.32).
In 1989, when polling touched a record 79.30 per cent, the UDF secured 17 seats, so was the case in 1984 when the voting percentage was 77.13 per cent.
In 2004, the LDF romped home, winning 18 out of 20 seats and the vote percentage was 71.45 per cent.
In 1996, the vote percentage was 71.11 per cent and the result was that both rival fronts ended up with 10 seats each. In 1998, when 70.66 per cent votes were polled, the UDF secured 11 and the LDF nine.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy appeared to be a relieved person after the voting concluded Thursday.
When told that the voting percentage was the third highest since 1980, his face lit up.
Chandy said: "History has always been with us when the percentage of polling has gone up. Now that everything is over, we will wait."
The Kerala chief minister is off to Karnataka Monday to campaign in Bangalore, known to have sizeable pockets of Malayalee residents.
Leader of Opposition V.S.Achuthanandan after the polls claimed that the UDF will be wiped out.
"We will emerge hugely victorious as people have voted against corruption, price rise and atrocities on women," said Achuthanandan.
And another hopeful is 84-year-old BJP warhorse O. Rajagopal, who put up one of his finest electoral performances for the prestigious Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency.
So much so, that political observers believe that Rajagopal's campaigning is likely to give the dapper Minister of State Shashi Tharoor many a sleepless night before the votes are counted next month.
Tharoor made his electoral debut in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, when he won with a margin of just two votes short of a whopping lakh.
Will invite Mamata to launch East West Metro: Babul Supriyo
Kolkata, Jan 22 (IANS) On getting assurance from the West Bengal government to resolve the impa
Gold Silver Rate Today: Gold price rises, silver rises, know the price of your city before buying
Wednesday marks the seventh day of the Russo-Ukraine war and the situation in Ukraine has worsene
The dispute between Indian cricketer Rishabh Pant and Bollywood actress Urvashi Rautela seems to
Every year on the occasion of Republic Day, some leader or the other is invited as the chief gues
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday presented the Union Budget for the financial
NEET UG Paper Leak: Supreme Court issues notice to NTA in NEET case, says it will have to respond
Students are very angry about the rigging of the NEET 2024 result. Now the matter of irregulariti
Gaganyaan Mission: Test flight of Gaganyaan Mission successful, Crew Escape capability tested
Overcoming all the challenges, the first test flight of the Gaganyaan mission has been launched.
For the first time, the Indian government has officially informed about sending 104 Indians livin
The entire Ayodhya will be under security cover regarding the Pran Pratistha ceremony. Seven big
The government has now permitted for export of broken rice till 30 September. But this can be don
