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.
Congress's Bharat Jodo Yatra will start on December 28 in West Bengal. The yatra in the state wil
Delhi will play all the remaining Ranji trophy matches at Feroz Shah Kotla
The senior vice president Chetan Chauhan officialy confirmed that three of the remaining matches
QN-nat-Education portal Embibe.com acquires 100Marks
Mumbai, March 10 (IANS) Leading education portal to prepare for competitive entrance tests Embi
What did Prime Minister Narendra Modi bring to India from the G-20 conference?
India is succeeding in establishing its presence in the world. The country is going to lead the p
State Congress leaders today lodged a complaint with the State Election Commission in Bengaluru o
The Indian team will take on Hong Kong in the Asia Cup today, after clearing the account of the l
Manmohan Singh Died: Dr. Manmohan Singh did not like BMW, he used to say- my car is 'Maruti 800'
Even after becoming the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh was a simple person. To a large extent
Rafale thundering in the mountains of Himachal at night, preparing to answer to China in Ladakh
The most modern and deadly Rafale fighter jets that have recently arrived in India have started r
The second consignment of 2.5 million doses of Corona vaccine Covaxin of Hyderabad-based company
India lost to England by five wickets in the first Test played in Leeds. The English team achieve
