Elections will be held on Monday in 234 assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu, 49 in West Bengal, 27 in Pondicherry and the Lok Sabha seat of Rae Bareli from where Congress President Sonia Gandhi is seeking re-election.
CHENNAI/KOLKATA: Elections will be held on Monday in 234 assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu, 49 in West Bengal, 27 in Pondicherry and the Lok Sabha seat of Rae Bareli from where Congress President Sonia Gandhi is seeking re-election.
One hundred and ninety six companies of paramilitary forces will provide security cover to 46.4 million voters for the 12th assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, where the contest is being seen as a tug of war between AIADMK and DMK.
In West Bengal, where Left parties have held sway for three decades, it will be the fifth and final phase of assembly elections.
More than 50,000 jawans of the central paramilitary forces will guard the 8.1 million voters across Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, North and South Dinajpur and Malda districts to decide the fate of 306 candidates, including seven ministers.
The mandate of the people in Asom, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Pondicherry will be known on May 11 when votes will be counted.
Among the 2,586 candidates in Tamil Nadu are a record 160 women and 1,222 Independents.
Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, her ministerial colleagues, DMK chief M Karunanidhi, senior DMK leaders K Anbazhagan, party deputy general secretary M K Stalin and treasurer Arcot N Veerasamy, actor-politician Vijayakanth are some star candidates, who are testing their electoral fortunes.
A total of 51,534 polling stations have been set up and 66,000 electronic voting machines have been dispatched to polling booths. The authorities have printed 11,99,200 ballot papers.
Prominent among the aspirants in the six northern districts of West Bengal are Municipal Affairs Minister Ashok Bhattacharya, Forest Minister Jogesh Burman, Relief Minister Hafiz Alam Sairani, Jail Affairs Minister Biswanth Choudhury, Civil Defence Minister Srikumar
Mukherjee, Food Processing Minister Sailen Sarkar and Minister of State for PWD Dasarath Tirkey -- all seeking reelection as Left Front nominees.
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