Actor and producer Tovino Thomas exercised his voting rights in the second round of the Lok Sabha elections, casting his ballot in Irinjalakuda, Thrissur.
With all 20 parliamentary seats in Kerala contested, Thomas, known for ‘Minnal Murali,’ also serves as the official brand ambassador for the Election Commission’s SWEEP (Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation) initiative.
Tovino Thomas voted at the Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Irinjalakkuda. Until 9 AM, Kerala witnessed a voter turnout of 11.98 percent, as reported by the Election Commission (EC).
The Election Commission reports that in Wayanad, where Congress leader and incumbent MP Rahul Gandhi is contesting, there was a voter turnout of 12.86 percent, while Thiruvananthapuram recorded 10.37 percent. Alappuzha tops the state’s voter turnout statistics with 13.63 percent.
The voter turnout was notably high in several constituencies, including Kannur (12.81%), Kasargod (12.10%), Chalakudy (13.13%), Ernakulam (11.44%), Idukki (11.85%), Alathur (11.91%), Attingal (11.83%), and Kollam (10.45%). Additionally, certain districts exhibited higher percentages, such as Kottayam (12.79%), Kozhikode (12.22%), Malappuram (11.17%), Mavelikara (12.94%), Palakkad (13.57%), Pathanamthitta (11.37%), Ponnani (10.47%), Thrissur (12.71%), and Vadakara (10.14%).
In Kerala, the fate of 194 candidates will be decided through voting. Among the state’s 20 constituencies voting on Tuesday, two seats, Alathur and Mavelikara, are reserved for candidates from Scheduled Castes (SC).
In Kerala, the prominent candidates include Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leader and incumbent Member of Parliament, who is contesting against Communist Party of India candidate Annie Raja (Marxist) in Wayanad. Interestingly, despite being rivals in the state, both belong to the national INDIA bloc.
Since the 2009 general elections, Wayanad has consistently been won by the Congress party. K Surendran, the state president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, has been nominated as a candidate in the constituency.
In Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor, a senior Congress leader and former Union Minister, secured victory in the general elections of 2009, 2014, and 2019. He is facing competition from Pannyan Raveendran of the CPI and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the BJP head and Union minister. In Thrissur, K Muraleedharan of the Congress is contesting against actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi of the BJP and VS Sunil Kumar of the CPI. Adoor Prakash, a Congress MP representing Attingal, is competing against V Joy of the CPM and V Muraleedharan of the BJP.
Today marks the beginning of the second phase of elections, covering 88 Lok Sabha constituencies across 13 States and one Union Territory. Notably, Kerala has 20 constituencies, Rajasthan 13, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh 8 each, Assam and Bihar 5 each, Madhya Pradesh 6, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal 3 each, and Tripura, Manipur, and Jammu & Kashmir 1 each.