Counting begins in Kerala civic polls

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 7: The rival fronts in Kerala appeared to be engaged in a neck and neck race as counting of votes began in the civic polls on Saturday.

The counting began at 8.00 a.m, with the results coming slowly, as the Left is marginally ahead of the ruling Congress led United Democratic Front (UDF).

The polls were held for 21,871 seats in 941 village, 152 blocks and 14 district panchayats besides 86 municipalities and six corporations.

As the results started to trickle in, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) led Left Democratic Front (LDF) appeared to make gains compared with the UDF.

In the 2010 polls, the UDF won 65 percent of the seats.

With the first results coming in as put out by the state election commission in the gram panchayat division of the polls, the LDF is leading in 130 while the UDF is leading in 110 seats.

In the block level polls, the LDF is ahead in 36, while the UDF is leading in 25.

Coming to the district panchayat the LDF is ahead in five with the UDF leading in two.

Regarding to the municipalities the LDF is leading in 31 and the UDF in 37.

In the six corporations, the LDF and UDF are ahead in three each.

The results saw the defeat of Usha Praveen, daughter of former chief minister E.K. Nayanar, in the Kochi corporation.

"The results have just started to come in, we will be the eventual winners," said senior UDF leader Antony Raju.

IANS