Overview
- Following Tuesday's campaign finale, the three regions enter the silence period with single‑phase polling on Thursday, April 9, to decide 296 assembly seats.
- Poll officials report final handover of voting machines, full staffing at booths, real‑time webcasting for oversight, and Central Armed Police deployments to deter intimidation.
- Kerala’s chief electoral officer confirmed strong uptake of special voting, with postal ballots for polling staff (Form 12) and home voting for voters aged 85+ and persons with disabilities (Form 12D) already registered in large numbers.
- Kerala lists about 2.71 crore eligible voters and 883 candidates for 140 seats, Assam has roughly 2.5 crore voters for 126 seats, and Puducherry counts about 9.5 lakh voters for 30 seats.
- In West Bengal, a dispute over large voter deletions escalated Wednesday as a TMC delegation said the chief election commissioner dismissed their concerns, the Commission denied misconduct and pledged fear‑free polls, and Mamata Banerjee filed her Bhabanipur nomination while vowing a fresh Supreme Court move.