Counting of votes for five assemblies begins at 8 am on Thursday, with postal ballots opening first across 823 seats in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry. In West Bengal, the tally will cover 293 of the state’s 294 seats because a repoll has been ordered in Falta, in South 24 Parganas district, after the poll body cited severe electoral offences.
West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal said arrangements had been made for a peaceful and transparent counting process and that the exercise would be conducted in a free and fair manner. The revote in Falta is set for May 21, and the votes there will be counted on May 24.
The counting day is carrying weight far beyond Bengal. Security has been intensified across the state ahead of the count, with heavy deployment outside key locations in Kolkata, including Sakhawat Memorial Government Girls' High School in Bhabanipur and Netaji Indoor Stadium. Across the five-state count, attention is fixed on the TMC in West Bengal, the DMK in Tamil Nadu, the Left Democratic Front in Kerala and the BJP-led NDA in Assam.
Assam will count votes at 40 centres to decide the fate of 722 candidates across 126 assembly constituencies, with the BJP-led NDA hoping for a hat-trick. The state has also deployed 25 companies of Central Armed Police Forces, each with around 100 personnel, as officials move to keep the process under control.
In Chennai, security has been strengthened with a three-layer arrangement at prominent counting centres including Loyola College, Queen Mary's College and Anna University, where high-resolution CCTV cameras have been installed across counting premises. Tamil Nadu recorded a record turnout of 82.24 percent, and exit polls have pointed to another term for MK Stalin's DMK, while not ruling out TVK's Vijay as a surprise winner.
For Kerala, the stakes are different but no less stark. If the Left Democratic Front loses, it would be the first time since the 1960s that Left parties are not in power in any Indian state. The first numbers on Thursday will begin to show whether the early momentum in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam holds through the day, or whether the count opens with one result and ends with another.