UDF, LDF battle for Kerala's 24 million votes


Posted on 8th Apr 2014 07:08 pm by admin

Thiruvananthapuram, April 8 (IANS) At the end of a long, sustained, acrimonious electoral campaign, the fate of Kerala's traditional political foes, the Congress-led UDF and the Left-led LDF, will be decided Thursday by some 24 million voters.

Perhaps for the first time in Kerala's electoral politics, dominated by the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Left Democratic Front (LDF), the performance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is being hotly discussed.

The BJP, which has never won even an assembly seat in Kerala, put up a spirited campaign.

In the outgoing Lok Sabha, the UDF has 16 members and the CPI-M-led LDF has four.

For the Congress, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said the Lok Sabha polls will be a referendum on his governance.

The campaign, which began in the third week of March, was marked by slanging matches on issues ranging from the murder of Left leader T.P. Chandrasekharan, a multi-million-rupee solar scam and a row over the ecology of the Western Ghats.

National leaders who campaigned in Kerala, including the prime minister, touched on these issues.

On the surface, the UDF appears upbeat. The otherwise soft-spoken Defence Minister A.K. Antony went hammer and tongs against the Communist Party of India-Marxist.

Antony ruffled many a Left feather when he called the LDF a non-entity and pointed out that the Left will will only a dozen seats even nationally.

The Communists, especially former chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan, believe otherwise.

Barring one opinion poll that gave the Left 11 seats in Kerala, all other opinion polls have predicted a clear win for the UDF.

Kerala's most fierce Lok Sabha battle will be fought at Kollam, where CPI-M politburo member M.A. Baby takes on N.K. Premachandran of the Revolutionary Socialist Party.

Baby, who expected a cakewalk, got a rude jolt when the RSP, a three decades long ally of the Left, joined forces with the UDF recently.

The other two interesting battles will be fought at Thiruvananthapuram, where union minister Shashi Tharoor is pitted against Bennet Abraham of the CPI and the BJP war horse O. Rajagopal.

At Chalakkudy in Thrissur, veteran comedian and character artiste and Left-backed independent candidate Innocent is taking on Congress veteran P.C. Chacko.

The decision of the CPI-M to field non-party candidates for five of the 15 constituencies it has been allotted has also become an issue.

Kerala has 24,251,942 voters, including 12,570,439 women.

There are 242 male candidates, including 27 women.

Did you know?Explore Trending and Topic pages for more stories like this.
54 Like 27 Dislike
Previous news Next news
Other news

Samsung Galaxy F62 with 7000mAh battery, get up to Rs 7000 discount, do not let go by hand

If you use a smartphone more and you are fond of gaming then you will need a phone with a big and

KKR vs SRH: KKR has prepared a 'master plan' for the IPL 2024 final, captain Shreyas Iyer revealed this after winning the qualifiers.

Kolkata Knight Riders made a spectacular entry in the final of IPL 2024. KKR entered the IPL fina

Major plane accident averted at Italy airport: Main landing gear tire detached from the plane as soon as it took off; Safe landing of America

Atlas Air's Dreamlifter, the main landing gear tire of a Boeing 747 aircraft detached from the ai

Modi, Bloomberg meet on Smart Cities

New Delhi, Feb 16 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and New York City's former mayor Michae

Singapore: Global School Foundation will invest $ 550 million in India, which will strengthen the school education sector

Singapore Global Schools Foundation: Singapore-based Indian-origin Global Schools Foundation (GSF

Broadcast Council BARC makes temporary ban on news channels' weekly TRP list after Republic controversy

The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has temporarily banned the television rating point

Women cannot be stopped from doing night duty, it is the government's responsibility to provide them security; CJI also took Sibal to task.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday strongly objected to the notification of the West Bengal government

Parliament Budget Session 2022: Petrol and diesel prices increased again, there is a possibility of uproar in Parliament even today

The echo of rising inflation in the country is also being heard in Parliament. On Monday, there w

How far the discovery of corona virus vaccine has reached in India?

New Delhi: In search of the corona vaccine in India, scientists and institutions are doing resear

Rahul to campaign for Nilekani in Bangalore

Bangalore, April 6 (IANS) Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will campaign Monday for party c

Sign up to write
Sign up now if you have flare of writing..
Login   |   Register
Follow Us
Indyaspeak @ Facebook Indyaspeak @ Twitter Indyaspeak @ Pinterest RSS



Play Free Quiz and Win Cash