D-Day for Five-State Polls: Counting on Monday to Shape Political Landscape

Vote counting for the assembly elections held in five states will take place on Monday. Counting will be conducted for all seats in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry. However, in West Bengal, votes will be counted for 293 out of 294 seats. Polling in the Falta constituency of South 24 Parganas district has been completely cancelled by the Election Commission, and fresh voting will now be conducted there.

The Falta seat in West Bengal has a total of 285 polling stations, and re-polling will be held at all of them on May 21. The counting of votes for this seat will take place on May 24. The Election Commission announced fresh polling for this constituency in a notification issued on Saturday night. According to the Commission, serious electoral malpractices and violations of democratic procedures were reported at several polling stations in Falta. As a result, the entire polling conducted on Wednesday, April 29, in this constituency has been cancelled.

West Bengal has a total of 294 assembly seats, and a minimum of 148 seats are required for a majority. In the 2021 assembly elections, the Trinamool Congress secured 48.02 percent of the vote and won 215 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party received 37.97 percent of the votes and won 77 seats. The CPI(M) secured 4.71 percent and the Congress 3.03 percent of the votes, but neither party won a single seat.

In neighboring Assam, the assembly has a total of 126 seats, and 64 are required for a majority. In the 2021 elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies won 76 seats, while the Congress secured 48 seats and others won two.

Tamil Nadu has a 234-member assembly, where 118 seats are needed for a majority. In the 2021 elections, the DMK and its allies won 153 seats, while the AIADMK secured 80 seats.

In Kerala, another key southern state, counting will also take place on Monday. The state assembly has 140 seats, and 71 are needed for a majority. In the previous election, the Left Democratic Front won 99 seats, while the United Democratic Front secured 41.

The Puducherry assembly has 30 seats, and 16 are required to form a government. In the last election, the BJP-led NDA alliance won 16 seats, while the EDPA secured 9 and others won 5 seats.