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As Kerala goes to assembly polls on Monday, the ruling Congress led United Democratic Front and Communist Party of India-Marxist headed Left Democratic Front, which had gone hammer and tongs at each other during the electioneering, are keeping their fingers crossed even as Bharatiya Janata Party is hoping to get a toe-hold in the southern state.
A total of 1,203 candidates, including 109 women, are contesting for the 140 assembly seats in which a total of 2.61 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise.
Though poll surveys pointed in favour of LDF forming the next government, Congress is equally confident that they would be scripting a new history in Kerala by breaking the pattern of alternate rule and retain power for another five-year term.
Main contestants seeking entry into assembly are Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, Marxist leaders V S Achutanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan, Indian Union Muslim League leader and Industries Minister P K Kunhalikutty, former Finance Minister K M Mani (Kerala Congress-M), BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan, former Union minister O Rajagopal and cricketer Sreesanth.
Some Mollywood actors are also in the fray.
BJP has thrown in its hat in the electoral arena after stitching up an alliance with the newly floated Bharat Dharma Jana Sena, a party floated by the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, an organisation of the backward Ezhva Hindu community, seeking to make inroads in the state known for its bipolar polity.
The two month-long hectic campaign in soaring summer heat saw national leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who made three trips to the state to address five meetings, wooing the voters.
Modi’s controversial Kerala-Somalia comparison saw the Malayalee sentiment getting hurt, with social media going viral with the hash tag #Pomone Modi (go off Modi) and the two rival fronts attacking him for the remark.
However, BJP defended the prime minister, saying people were “twisting facts” on his remarks and he had only highlighted the plight of the tribal community in the state
and his desire to improve their living conditions.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and other party leaders including A K Antony and Ghulam Nabi Azad, CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI National Secretary Sudhakar Reddy, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar (CPI-M), former Prime Minister Deva Gowda, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar were among the prominent politicians who campaigned for their respective party candidates.
The electioneering saw local issues giving way to corruption scams like AugustaWestland chopper deal, 2G, 3G, Commonwealth games, though the solar scam and brutal rape and murder of a Dalit woman in the state also figured prominently.
After the drubbing it received in the Bihar and Delhi elections last year, BJP had put all its energy on the assembly elections in five states including Kerala, from where it is yet to open an account either to the assembly or Parliament.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi addressed meetings at Thrissur and the state capital and struck a chord with her response to Modi’s remarks on her Italian roots.
Though Rahul Gandhi was scheduled to attend few meetings, he had to keep away from the campaign scene following indisposition.
BJP national president Amit Shah and a host of Union ministers, senior Congress leaders A K Antony and Ghulam Nabi Azad, CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, party Polit Bureau members Prakash Karat and Brinda Karat, Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Kanhaya Kumar were among those who actively participated in the campaign.
V S Achutanandan, 93, LDF’s poll mascot, hit the campaign despite his advanced age and sweltering heat.
He travelled the length and breadth of the state to address poll meetings besides concentrating on his constituency Malampuzha in Palakkad district.
While for the Congress the battle for Kerala is prestigious with its dwindling presence in the rest of the country and especially after the massive defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, for the CPI-M victory is equally important as the Marxist front has its government now only in Tripura.
In West Bengal, to defeat the ruling Trinamool Congress, the Marxist party had an electoral understanding with the Congress, which was a talking point in Kerala where the two parties are rivals.
While the Congress-led UDF is confident that there is no anti-incumbency wave to upset its applecart, the LDF is hopeful of riding to power comfortably.