Elections

As election campaign reaches it crescendo in Kerala, leadership of the campaign is in the grip of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Opposition Leader V. S. Achuthanandan, though it was supposed to be a campaign led by triumvirates in both the Congress-led United Democratic Front and CPI (M)-led Left Democratic Front.

The Congress high command had entrusted preliminary vetting of candidates and campaign to joint leadership of the Chief Minister, KPCC president V. M. Sudheeran and Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala.

In CPI (M), Opposition Leader V. S. Achuthanandan, party State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and former State Secretary Pinarai Vijayan were to be on the forefront of the campaign.

Will glamour or sustained nursing of the constituency win the election? This is the question that pops up when watching the Assembly election contest at Pathanapuram in Kerala, where three actors are fighting it out.

Large number of voters, especially in the armed forces, who are eligible to exercise their franchise through postal ballots, fail to vote in the elections for various reasons.

Balloting Data show that a vast majority of persons who were eligible for voting through postal ballots either did not or could not vote in the Parliament elections in 2014. In the case of armed forces, there were reports that the postal ballots, in many cases, did not reach them in time.

Thiruvananthapuram: There are 943 cases against various candidates in the Assembly elections.  Of this, 685 are against LDF candidates, 152 against BJP-BDJS candidates and 106 cases against UDF candidates.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said in a press release that the higher number of cases against the LDF candidates showed that the left parties were beneficiaries of politics of violence. There were 617 cases against CPI (M) alone.

As many as 1203 candidates are in the arena for Kerala Assembly elections when the time for withdrawal of candidatures ended on Monday.

Poonjar constituency, where former Chief Whip P. C. George is contesting as independent, has the largest number of candidates— 17.

Malappuram district has the highest number of candidates (145) while Wayanad district has lowest (29). UDF is facing rebels in nine constituencies.