Exit Poll Results 2021 Highlights: The Assembly elections 2021 concluded on April 29, with the eighth and final phase of elections in West Bengal ending at 6.30 pm on Thursday. The exit poll results of the Assembly elections to the states of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, and the Union territory of Puducherry started coming around 7 pm today. The Election Commission had prohibited the publishing and broadcasting of exit poll results till 7.30 pm on April 29.
The eighth and final
phase of elections was underway in Bengal, where stray incidents of violence were reported from several areas, but the overall polling process has been peaceful with 76.07 per turnout recorded till 5 pm, EC officials said.
Polling happened in a single phase in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry on April 6, while voters in Assam cast their votes in three phases. Polling in Bengal is taking place in eight phases. Of these, seven phases have concluded.
The polling for the eighth and finals phase is today (April 29). Polling began at 7 am on Thursday for 35 seats in this phase of the assembly elections in West Bengal, amid tight security and a rampaging second wave of COVID-19. Counting of votes in all states will happen on May 2.
In Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress is fighting to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s surge at bay. The saffron party has shown a dramatic electoral rise in the state over the last few years. In Assam, the state’s governing BJP is hoping to retain power even as it faces ‘Mahajot’, the joint opposition alliance comprising the Congress, AIUDF, and other regional parties. Congress and the Left Front, which are allies in Bengal, are competing for power in Kerala. The Congress-led UDF and the ruling LDF have been winning alternate elections since the early 1980s. Tamil Nadu’s ruling AIADMK has continued its alliance with the BJP amid a challenge from MK Stalin-led DMK and its alliance partners. However, one of the key things to watch out for in the southern state is how some of the smaller parties – including that of actor Kamal Haasan and TTV Dhinakaran’s AMMK – may impact the poll outcome. With their government having collapsed due to defections weeks before the election, V Narayanasamy-led Congress is battling the BJP-NR Congress alliance in Puducherry.
