India, May 4 -- Votes across 823 seats in four states and a Union territory will be counted on Monday to determine the winners of assembly polls marked by record turnouts on the back of mass deletions of names from voter rolls and high-stakes contests with wider national political ramifications.

Counting will begin at 8am in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry in what will be the single biggest day of election results since the 2024 polls. Three of the states - Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala - have never seen a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and represent the final frontier for the party.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rules Assam and hopes to return to power for a third consecutive time; in Puducherry,...