The campaign for the April 6 assembly elections in Kerala will end on Saturday evening. The order has been issued in accordance with the instructions of the Electoral Commission and the model code of conduct to guarantee free and fair elections.
Here’s a look at the key battles in the Assembly elections:
Konni
One of the key centers of the Sabarimala protests, the mountainous district is one of the seats selected by the BJP that has presented State President K Surendran as its candidate. He will face the challenge of sitting MLA KU Jenish Kumar from LDF and Robin Peter from UDF. While it is a matter of prestige that the saffron party wins the seat, the epicenter of the Sabarimala movement, development problems could play a larger role in the constituency affected by falling rubber prices.
Nemom
In 2016 Assembly polls, Nemom made national headlines, when the BJP opened its Kerala Assembly account when its star candidate, former union minister O Rajagopal, defeated CPI-M leader V Sivankutty and left. to the UDF candidate led by Congress, a former state. Minister V Surendran Pillai of the then Janata Dal (U), a poor third.
The CPI-M has long mocked Congress that it allowed Rajagopal to win by bringing in a weak candidate and with O Rajagopal himself publicly stating about the alleged exchange of votes between UDF and BJP, winning the seat has become in a prestigious issue for Congress that has presented as a candidate the incumbent deputy and son of former CM K Karunakaran, K Muraleedharan. However, with the BJP pitching former Meghalaya governor Kummanam Rajasekharan to retain the seat and the CPM pitching Sivankutty to regain its old stronghold, the seat is the most talked about in the state.
Shovel
In what could be a classic case of role reversal, Mani C Kappan, who captured the Kerala Congress stronghold for the Left Front, is set to compete as a UDF candidate against LDF candidate Kerala Congress (M) Chairman Jose K. Mani, who was defeated by ex when he ran as a UDF candidate last time after the death of his father and Kerala Congress strongman KM Mani.
The contest is crucial for both sides, as it could also decide the fate of the Kerala congressional factions that look at each other from different sides.
Dharmadom
The North Kerala constituency is key for one reason only: CM Pinarayi Vijayan is fighting to keep his seat. The simple fact that it took Congress until the eleventh hour to find a candidate for the seats indicates the course of the wind in the constituency. While the BJP has sent former state president CK Padmanabhan and Congress C Raghunath, the real notable challenge for Vijayan may come from the mother of the ‘Walayar sisters, a mother seeking justice for her two daughters whose bodies were discovered after having been sexually abused.
Palakkad
Palakkad and its train station have traditionally been the gateway to the state from the rest of the country. For years, the constituency, with a significant non-Malayali population, has witnessed a three-sided competition with the left in third place behind Congress and the BJP last time despite a pro-left trend across the state. The BJP has presented Metropolitan E Sreedharan as its candidate and has cast him as the future prime minister. However, his path to victory will not be easy, as he will face the current MLA leader and the leader of Congress, Shafi Parambil, and CPM CP Pramod.
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