In a three-cornered fight for 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala, which has always been held by the CPI(M)-led LDF and Congress-led UDF, will the BJP-led NDA finally be able to open its account? A total of 2,61,51,534 voters in Kerala will decide the fate of 227 candidates in the fray in these 20 seats.
The number of women voters stands at 1,34,66,521, while the state has 1,26,84,839 registered male voters. In addition to this, 174 transgender persons, too, are eligible to vote this year. The state has as many as 2,88,991 new voters this year. There are 1,35,357 differently abled voters.
The United Democratic Front (UDF) has 17 Congress candidates, two Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) candidates and one Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) candidate.
The Left Democratic Front (LDF) has 16 CPI(M) candidates, two CPI candidates and two independent candidates backed by the front. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has 15 BJP candidates, four Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) candidates and a candidate of the Kerala Congress (Thomas).
The Election Commission has identified 831 booths as sensitive and 359 vulnerable out of the total of about 24,970 booths. About 3,621 will have live webcasting. On Tuesday, polling will begin at 7 am and will go on till 6 pm.
The Election Commission has warned of Maoist threat in 219 booths, and among these, 72 booths are in Wayanad, 67 in Malappuram, 39 in Kannur and 41 in Kozhikode. As many as 1,01,140 officials have been appointed for polling duty.
As part of security arrangements, 57 companies of para-military forces have been deployed across Kerala. This will be in addition to a large number of security personnel from various departments including Police, Prison, Forest, Home Guard and others.
The Sabarimala women’s entry issue, the floods in 2018, the political violence in the state and issues of development and communism have dominated the election this time.
The electoral landscape in Kerala changed with the announcement of Congress National President Rahul Gandhi’s candidature from Wayanad. The BJP soon gave the Wayanad ticket to BDJS chief Thushar Vellappally, whose previously allotted Thrissur seat was, in turn, given to current Rajya Sabha MP and actor Suresh Gopi. PP Suneer of the CPI is the candidate of the Left Democratic Front in Wayanad.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the Congress won eight seats while its allies IUML had won two and Kerala Congress (M) won one seat. The CPI(M) won five seats, its independent candidates won two seats and CPI got one seat. RSP, which was offered a seat by the UDF, won that seat.
While BJP managed to get 10 percent or more vote share in nine Lok Sabha constituencies, it managed to finish second in Thiruvananthapuram, where its leader O Rajagopal was pitted against Congress’s sitting Member of Parliament (MP) Shashi Tharoor.
Thiruvananthapuram and Pathanmathitta are the two seats where the BJP hopes it will win.
The BJP has fielded Former Mizoram Governor and former state president of the party Kummanam Rajasekharan in Thiruvananthapuram and K Surendran in Pathanamthitta. Surendran was at the forefront of protests against women’s entry into the Sabarimala temple situated in the constituency.
Two-time sitting MP and former Union minister of state Shashi Tharoor is the Congress candidate in Thiruvananthapuram while CPI’s senior leader and former minister C Divakaran is the Left candiate. In Pathanamthitta Congress’s has fielded two time sitting MP Anto Antony and CPI (M) has chosen sitting MLA Veena George.
Kummanam was defeated in Vattiyoorkavu constituency in Thiruvananthapuram in the 2016 Assembly polls. Surendran, who has contested several times in both Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, has never tasted victory.
Other details
The highest number of voters are in the northern district of Malappuram - 31,36,191 and the lowest in Wayanad - 5,94,177. Kerala has a total number of 24,970 polling stations. Malappuram has 2,750 polling booths and Wayanad has 575 booths, the highest and the lowest respectively.
There are 867 model polling stations. The number of polling booths that will be totally controlled by women stands at 240. A total of 35,193 voting machines and web casting facility have been arranged in 3,621 polling booths.
What is perhaps the most disappointing is that among the 227 candidates, just 23 are women.
Before going to your respective polling booths to cast votes, here is what you need to know as a voter: