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Senior Congress leaders, including KC Venugopal, Ramesh Chennithala, Sunny Joseph and Shashi Tharoor, gathered at the party's Kerala headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram to celebrate after the United Democratic Front crossed the halfway mark in trends released by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The leaders marked the moment by cutting a cake and jointly raising their hands in a gesture of victory, celebrating the UDF's strong performance in the early trends. Speaking on early trends in Keralam, the CPI (M) General Secretary, MA Baby, expressed optimism about the reversal of trends as the counting will progress further later in the day. He stated that under the LDF regime, poverty has been eradicated from the state, meanwhile, it holds a top status in terms of education, healthcare, and social security measures. "These are just early trends. Even though UDF has an edge right now, we hope this will be reversed in the ensuing rounds. Because, under LDF, Keralam became the only Indian state from where extreme poverty has been eradicated. It is at the top in terms of quality of education, healthcare, and social security measures. We hope, politically literate people of Keralam would consider all these aspects and support LDF, which will be reflected in the upcoming rounds... we are hopeful for a third term," said MA Baby. The United Democratic Front has attained a lead in 91 constituencies in Keralam, as the Election Commission of India declared trends of all 140 seats in the state. The Congress is currently leading in 58 constituencies, followed by Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) in 22. The achievement led to the return of the UDF government in Keralam after 10 years, bringing an end to Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) regime, which is currently leading in 40 constituencies. As the United Democratic Front (UDF) crossed the halfway majority mark in Keralam, senior Congress leaders including Ramesh Chennithala, KC Venugopal, Shashi Tharoor and others, arrived at the party's state office in Thiruvananthapuram. All the senior party leaders celebrated with other workers, with KC Venugopal sharing a hug with Shashi Tharoor, Ramesh Chennithala, and state Congress chief Sunny Joseph. Meanwhile, as the UDF crossed the halfway mark in early counting trends in Kerala, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor welcomed the development, calling it a sign of voters seeking change after a decade. Speaking to ANI, Tharoor said the party represents a shift in political direction and stressed the need for a "new kind of politics" following what he described as 10 years of poor governance. "Look, we are a party of change. We want that after 10 years of such bad politics, it is very important to bring change and, in my view, to bring in a new kind of politics," said Tharoor. Counting is underway across 823 constituencies in key regions including West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Keralam, Assam, and the Union Territory of Puducherry. The process begins with postal ballots, followed by counting of Electronic Voting Machines from 8:30 am, with round-wise results being updated in real time on the ECINET platform and the Election Commission's official portal. Security has been tightened across all counting centres ahead of the process. (ANI)
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