Second phase of Assembly polls begins peacefully

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 29 (UNI) Polling for the second phase of Assembly elections in the six central districts of Kerala today began on a peaceful note.

At the onset of voting, long queues were seen in a few booths, while it was yet to pick up in other polling stations.

No untoward incident was reported from any place, Election Commission sources said.

The second phase covers 66 constituencies in the districts of Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode and Wayanad.

There are around 1.06 crore voters in these districts and 9,768 polling booths have been set up.

A total of 437 candidates including stalwarts like Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan (Malampuzha), Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran) president K Muraleedharan (Koduvally), Indian Union Muslim League leader P K Kunhalikutty (Kuttippuram) and BJP leader O Rajagopal (Palakkad) are in the fray.

The fate of nine Ministers in the Oomen Chandy Cabinet - M K Muneer (Mankada), E T Mohammed Basheer (Thirur), Dominic Presentation (Palluruthy), V K Ibrahim Kunju (Mattanchery), Kutty Ahamed Kutty (Thirurangadi), Aryadan Mohammed (Nilambur), A Sujanapal (Kozhikode-I) and P Anilkumar (Vandoor) will be decided today.

The first phase of polls to the six southern districts was on April 22 and the last phase for the remaining Kasargode and Kannur districts is scheduled for May three.

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