Counting of votes begins in Kerala

 Counting of votes began in Kerala on Thursday morning to elect a new 140-member assembly.

The process will start with the over one lakh postal ballots cast in the May 16 election. 

A total of 1,203 contestants, including 109 women, are in the fray. 

Most exit polls have predicted a victory for the Left over the Congress-led United Democratic Front. The BJP is hoping to enter the Kerala assembly for the first time. 

Vote counting starts in Tamil Nadu

 Counting of votes cast in Tamil Nadu's assembly elections began on Thursday morning, officials said.

The counting started at 8 a.m. across all the counting centres to elect 232 legislators. Polling has been put off in two constituencies: Thanjavur and Aravakurichi.

A total of 3,728 candidates were in the fray.

The main contest is widely believed to be between Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa's AIADMK and the DMK-Congress alliance. 

Bengal vote count begins

Authorities on Thursday began counting the millions of votes cast in the West Bengal assembly elections. The process started at 90 counting centres across the state at 8 a.m.

The fate of 1,961 candidates, including 198 women, stored in 77,413 electronic voting machines would be known during the day.

Around 82.80 percent of the 6.55 crore electorate voted in the elections held from April 4 to May 5 to elect a 294-member assembly.

A total of 294 counting observers have been deployed along with 78 companies of central forces.

The ruling Trinamool Congress led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Left Front-Congress alliance are the main contenders for power. The BJP is contesting in 291 seats.