Thiruvananthapuram: Polling began at 7 am  on Tuesday in Kerala for the 140 seats single phase election to the state assembly, amid heavy security. In the initial hours of voting, Kerala recorded over 10 percent polling by10 am. Maximum turnout was witnessed in Palakkad and Kollam.

Polling began at sharp 7 am and long queue was seen in most of the booths across all districts.  Prominent leaders including chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan cast his ballot early morning itself.

Malfunctioning of voting machines was also reported in some of the booths. They have been rectified and polling is progressing.  A man collapsed and died during voting at Vallamkullam in Aranmula. The deceased was identified as Gopinath Kurup, 65.

Ministers E Chandrashekaran, E P Jayarajan, Mercykutty Amma, A K Saseendran, MP Hibi Eden, RMP candidate K K Rema, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, metroman E Sreedharan, NDA candidate Krishnakumar were among others cast their ballots early morning.

Over 10 percent polling was recorded in the initial hours .

A mock polling was conducted by 6 am in 40,771 booths where a surge of Covid cases were reported.  The mock poll was held in the presence of booth agents of the candidates who are contesting. Voting machines in less than 10 booths were found to be malfunctioning in the mock polls. This was rectified immediately and polling began at 7 am.

Voting machines did not function properly at 107 number booth at St Sebastian UP school in Thodupuzha, 33 booth at Koliyadukkam  Govt UP school in Kasaragod, one of the booth in Kozhikode, 95th booth at Panakkad CKML school in Malappuram. VVPAT machines did not function here. Mock polling was delayed at Thrippunithura Palace School due to power disruption.

The voting for 140 constituencies in the assembly and one Lok Sabha constituency commenced at 7 am on Tuesday. Out of the 140 constituencies, polling will be held till 6 pm in 9 constituencies and 7 pm in 131 constituencies. A total of 957 candidates are testing the political waters in the assembly polls. 6 candidates are contesting in Lok Sabha bypolls for Malappuram seat.

74 crore voters will decide the fate of the contestants. The total electorate includes 1,32,83,724 male
voters, 1,41,62,025 female voters and 290 transgenders, according to election commission figures.

A total of 59,292 Kerala police officials are deployed for election duty along with central forces and police personnel from other states.

481 police stations in the state have been divided into 142 sub-divisions and are under the direct control of the 14 district police chiefs.

Apart from the Kerala Police officials, there are 140 companies of CISF, CRPF and BSF officials and this is the biggest deployment of central forces in any election in the state. Special operations group and Thunderbolt are also deployed in naxal hit areas.