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This story is from May 4, 2006
Polling ends, war of words begins in Kerala
In Kerla top leaders of the Congress-led UDF and the Left-led LDF launched a war of words, each claiming the spoils.
The third phase of polling for 15 seats in the sensitive Kannur district and Kasaragode passed without any violent incidents. The state election department said that initial estimates showed the turnout to be 72% in Kannur and 67% in Kasaragode.
In the 2001 polls, LDF had won 10 of the 15 seats in these two districts.
The Election Commission had termed at least 1,477 polling booths in Kannur and 365 in Kasaragode as sensitive read prone to violence. Consequently, close to 13,000 security personnel from Kerala and other states were deployed and 700 digital cameras were placed in polling booths.
With polling coming to an end, the number game appears to have begun in earnest. The CPM leadership, braced with a spate of favourable opinion polls predicting a win, has begun private discussions on the next government formation.
The CPM leadership in Kannur district is learnt to have resolved to add the name of senior Marxist Kodiyeri Balakrishnan to the already long list of CPM's CM-hopefuls. This is being seen as a move to spoil the chances of comrade V S Achuthanandan, the Marxist from southern Kerala who has earned a larger-than-life image lately.
The CPM has a major power struggle churning within, where Achuthanandan and his bete noire Pinarai Vijayan apart, there are contenders like Paloli Mohammedkutty, S Ramachandran Pillai, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan in the growing list of hopefuls.
On the other hand, there is chief minister Oommen Chandy who at the close of polling declared his government would get another mandate to rule. "It may not be by a great number, but we will have enough to rule," he said on Wednesday.
Chandy said he had traveled throughout the state during the campaign and saw that there was no anti-incumbency feeling that has been a hallmark of Kerala for 50 years. "I'm no astrologer to quote numbers, but will return to office."
Astrologer or not, CPM state chief Pinarai Vijayan said in not one of the 14 districts would Congress and its UDF allies get a lead.
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