Election updates on TV

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MAY 11. The TV channels in the State--private channels and Doordarshan--are all set to blanket the people of Kerala with minute by minute updates of the counting of votes for the Assembly polls, that will commence on the morning of May 13.

Continuous panel discussions and analyses, intermittent news flashes and on-the-spot reactions from top leaders of various political parties are some of the carrots that the various channels are dangling in front of viewers to ensure prime viewership for their poll programmes.

Doordarshan will commence its programmes at 9 a.m. on May 13 with a satellite-microwave interlinked transmission that is designed to reach the latest in counting and in results from all the States where elections took place. Doordarshan is creating a tele-bridge connecting its Thiruvananthapuram and Delhi studios and the State headquarters of the Congress, CPI(M) and the BJP, in the State capital. While the State leaders of these parties will be lined up in Thiruvananthapuram, the national leaders will be featured in panel discussions in Delhi. In all, Doordarshan will have 11 news bulletins of varying durations on counting day.

Prior to this, at 6-30 p.m. on May 12, Doordarshan will telecast the programme `Vidhi Vilippadakale'--a programme that seeks to analyse voter-attitudes and voting patterns in the State.

Asianet will commence its May 13 programmes at 8 a.m. featuring continuous panel discussions, projections and analyses which will go on till the last seat is declared. There will be news bulletins every half an hour.

The poll-programmes in Kairali channel will commence at 8 a.m. and end at 4 p.m. There will be half-hour news bulletins in addition to panel discussions and poll analyses. The channel's reporters from other States will also be pitching in with their news and analyses. Kairali has also roped in prominent political and social figures for its panel discussions.

Surya is seeking to pre-empt its rival channels by commencing its `Janavidhi-2001' programme at 7-45 a.m. Programmes will be telecast from Surya's studios at Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode. Surya says it is for the first time that a TV channel is attempting live broadcast simultaneously from three cities in Kerala. Surya will have hourly news updates about the status of counting from various centres in the State. News flashes and status reports on counting in the other four States are also part of Surya's `Janavidhi'.

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Section  : State Elections
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