2026 Assembly elections: All eyes on counting centres across 5 battlegrounds

In a matter of a few hours, the fate of who will take charge in 823 seats across Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Assam and West Bengal will be decided on Monday, as the Assembly elections which took place on April 9, 23, and 29 come to an end.

While the results for 823 of the 824 seats will be declared on Monday, all 285 polling stations in the one remaining seat—Falta—will undergo repolling on May 21, due to what the ECI has called "severe electoral offences". The results for Falta will be announced after that on May 24.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has confirmed that counting of votes will begin under tight security at 8 AM, starting with the postal ballots at the counting centres, which will have a three-tier security system.

Apart from security measures, for the first time, the ECI has introduced a QR code-based Photo Identity Card system through ECINET to prevent unauthorised entry into the counting centres as well.

Assam

Officials have made arrangements in place for the counting of votes of all 126 seats, which will be held at 40 counting centres across all 35 districts amid tight security. Polling in Assam was held on April 9 with an 85.96 per cent voter turnout.

For Assam, the clash is between the BJP-led ruling NDA alliance—at the helm of which is CM Himanta Biswa Sarma—and the Congress-led alliance spearheaded by the Gogoi trio.

Exit polls for the state have also predicted an NDA sweep in the state with more than 80 seats—which is well past the magic mark of 64 in the state's 126-seat Assembly—giving CM Sarma a hat-trick third term in the state.

West Bengal

In West Bengal, officials confirmed that arrangements are in place at 77 counting centres across the state, with multi-layered security in place to ensure transparency. 432 counting observers (COs) have also been deployed for the smooth counting of votes, as per a PTI report.

Despite the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls and tensions flaring up over polling controversies enough for the ECI to retain CAPF officers across the state even after April 29 (until further orders), the state saw its highest-ever combined voter turnout of 92.47 per cent across both phases of voting.

West Bengal sees the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, which is looking to retain power in the state for a historic fourth term, fiercely clash against the BJP.

Suvendu Adhikari from the saffron party, who is taking on the CM in her home turf of Bhabanipur—as well as his own stronghold of Nandigram, from where he had defeated her in the 2021 elections—is one of the central faces of the BJP in the elections, also touted as a possible CM face.

While most exit polls have predicted a close finish for the BJP, just one has projected a win for the TMC. However, in both cases, the margins are projected to be tight, with the majority mark at 148 seats out of the total 294.

Tamil Nadu

As per AIR, in Tamil Nadu, a total of 10,545 counting personnel will be deployed for counting duty, supported by 4,624 micro-observers. 234 counting observers too have been deployed, one for each Assembly constituency, the report added.

Tamil Nadu sees a four-way clash between the ruling DMK-led SPA alliance looking to retain power in the state against the primary challenger, the AIADMK alliance.

Actor-politician Vijay's TVK has also emerged as a major challenger in the fray, which political observers have said has the power to become kingmaker in the elections due to the polarisation of the votes from the two seats that he contested from—Perambur and Tiruchirapalli East. Seeman's NTK is the fourth variable in the fray, also said to have had an impact on the tight margins.

While most exit polls have predicted tight finishes for both the DMK+ and the AIADMK+, all of them hinted at a tight battle due to the TVK and NTK influence, with a few even projecting that the TVK would emerge as the majority party instead, scoring more than the magic mark of 118 of the state Assembly's 234 seats.

Kerala

In Kerala, counting of votes in all 140 Assembly constituencies will begin at 8 AM across 43 locations in the state, as per Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Rathan U. Kelkar. Kerala's voter turnout has also tentatively risen to 79.70 per cent after the inclusion of service voters' postal ballots. A total of 15,465 counting personnel have been deployed, while 32,301 police personnel have been deployed for security at counting centres.

Kerala sees the incumbent CPI(M)-led LDF alliance, led by CM Pinarayi Vijayan, try to retain power again after disrupting the state's cyclic LDF-UDF shift when it won the 2021 elections. The key challenger here is the Congress-led UDF alliance, which is trying to wrest power from the LDF on the back of a strong anti-incumbency wave.

Most exit polls have projected the UDF as the winner of what is expected to shape up as a tight match with the LDF. The NDA is also expected to exert an influence on the poll arithmetic. The possibility of a hung Assembly also looms large in Kerala, with the winner needing more than 71 of the 140-seat state Assembly.

Puducherry

Six counting centres have been set up across the Union Territory. Puducherry Chief Electoral Officer P. Jawahar on Saturday confirmed that elaborate arrangements are in place for the counting of votes polled in the April 9 assembly elections.

With just 30 seats to be won, the margins are extremely tight for the clash between the incumbent AINRC-led NDA alliance in the state, led by CM N. Rangasamy, and the Congress-DMK alliance led by V. Vaithilingam looking to wrest power. Also in the fray is Vijay's TVK, which is said to have an impact on the margins of both the NDA and Congress-DMK alliance.

Exit polls have projected a narrow victory for the NDA alliance, with most estimates at around the majority mark of 16. However, a number of factors, such as caste equations and grassroots connect are expected to make the outcome extremely unpredictable.