There was an element of anticipation and a dash of excitement in the air near Farook College, one of the counting stations here, when the town woke up to the reckoning day of the 16 Lok Sabha elections on Friday.
The strong presence of police did not dampen the enthusiasm of the people, who were seen gathered in small groups outside the campus. Officials and mediapersons were seen rushing to the counting centre around 8 a.m.
The media centre with two closed-circuit televisions was ready near the counting room, which was crowded with newspersons closely monitoring the screens that put out the figures as the counting progressed.
United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate M.K. Raghavan was in the lead from the very beginning of the counting.
From 422, it grew to 4,185 when 10 per cent of the votes were tallied. Never during the five-hour-long counting process did Mr. Raghavan trail even once as his lead grew from 5,278 at 25 per cent votes to 10,788 when 50 per cent of votes were counted.
In between, news from tightly contested constituencies, including Thiruvananthapuram, filtered to the media-room. District Collector C.A. Latha was seen monitoring the security arrangements. Meanwhile, Mr. Raghavan’s lead swelled to 15,000 as counting of votes reached 95 per cent and the rally ended only when the counting was done around 1 p.m. and his lead was officially announced as 16,883.
The news came by then that the victorious Mr. Raghavan was on his way to the counting station. He arrived around 1.30 p.m. and alighted from the car, which was trailed by an entourage, to loud slogan-shouting by his euphoric party-men. He rushed to the room, where the Collector was waiting for him to sign the victory sheet. He soon returned to address the media by when the celebrations had already begun.
Finishing the media interaction in a hurry, he turned to join the elated crowd waiting outside the counting centre. He was soon hoisted to the shoulders of his admirers and the victory march had already begun with party workers dancing to band troupe music, shouting slogans, waving flags and a motorcade beginning to move behind his open vehicle en route to the city.
