Overview
- Millions cast ballots Thursday in single-day assembly elections across the three regions, with Election Commission data by about 7:30 pm showing Puducherry at 89.20% turnout, Assam at 85.10% and Kerala at 77.50%.
- Early figures from the Election Commission at 9 am showed steady queues with Kerala at 16.23%, Assam at 17.87% and Puducherry at 17.41%, supported by webcasting and heavy security that in Assam included more than 150,000 personnel across tens of thousands of booths.
- In Assam, the BJP-led alliance seeks a third term against a Congress-led front in a contest shaped late in the campaign by a high-profile “passport” dispute, with Congress alleging the chief minister’s wife holds foreign passports and offshore assets and the couple denying the claims as AI-generated fakes as police filed cases.
- Kerala’s vote tests whether Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s Left Democratic Front can secure an unprecedented third straight term against the Congress-led UDF, as the BJP pushes for a first assembly win in a state with 2.7 crore registered voters and 140 seats.
- Puducherry’s race features Chief Minister N. Rangasamy’s AINRC-led NDA against the Congress-DMK bloc, with full statehood a core demand and actor Vijay’s new TVK adding a third force, and results due May 4 after EVMs are tallied.