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Assembly elections : Left continues its victory march |
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Exit polls conducted after the third phase of polling in West Bengal and the second phase of polling in Kerala, indicate that Left parties are a well set for emerging victorious. But a pre-poll survey conducted in Tamil Nadu which is to have one-day polling on May 8, shows that the battle between the alliance led by All India Anna DMK chief, Jayalalithaa and the Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) headed by DMK’s M. Karunanidhi is poised on the knife’s edge, with just one per cent vote share dividing the two alliances.
An exit poll conducted by India Vision-AC Nielsen in Kerala after the polling for the second phase of Assembly elections on Saturday, April 29, predicts that the Left Democratic Front will come to power with a clear majority. The exit poll indicates that the LDF will secure 87 out of 125 seats in 12 districts where elections have been completed in the first two phases. The remaining 15 seats of the State Assembly will elect their representatives in the third and last phase.
In West Bengal, exit polls conducted after the third phase of polling on Thursday, April 27, predict a comfortable majority for the Left Front in the constituencies which went to the polls that day. Star-Ananda gave the Left Front 49 of the 76 seats figuring in the third phase. The channel predicted 23 seats for the Trinamul Congress-BJP combine and two each for the Congress and other parties.
One remarkable feature of the polling in West Bengal was that there was no major incident of poll-related violence, thanks to the stern measures taken by the Election Commission. About 70 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise in the third phase. West Bengal will have two more rounds of polling.
An opinion poll conducted by the Asian Age-AC Nielsen indicates that the All India Anna DMK alliance in Tamil Nadu may get the backing of 48 per cent of the voters while the DMK-led alliance may be just one per cent behind with 47 per cent vote share. As the difference of one per cent is less than the poll error margin of over two per cent, the survey has not indicated the number of seats the two alliances will win in the May 8 elections.
Going by the pre-poll survey, observers say that the verdict can go either way.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission has issued notices to the DMK, Congress and other parties in the Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) in Tamil Nadu for allegedly violating the Model Code of Conduct. The Commission said more than 200 vehicles with party flags were used at a rally addressed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on April 25 which was in violation of the norms laid down by the Commission.
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