The ruling Left democratic front led by the CPI-M is on a sticky wicket in Kerala with only four days remaining for the first phase of polling.
Opinion polls conducted by national and local agencies are predicting a clean sweep for the Congress-led United Democratic Front .While two national level surveys gave the UDF 15 out of 20 seats and the Left Democratic Front 5 seats. Local agencies were more liberal in giving seats to the UDF with some even predicting 18 seats for the UDF.
It may be recalled that the LDF had won 18 seats in the last Lok Sabha polls with the NDA winning one seat and the Indian Union Muslim League winning the other one.
A trip through the state gave a feeling to this correspondent that all is not well for the Left Front candidates with the people showing resent even in left strong holds like Kannur and Vadakara, which has literally become red bastions after the delimitation exercises.
In the constituencies hitherto represented by the left front a consolidation which is against the CPI-M combination with the PDP leader Abdul Nasser Madani is slowly working out.
In addition to this the CPI-M leaders had taken "pains" to estrange the Christian community and the dominant upper caste Nair community away from the left front. CPI-M state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan has been the main culprit in this exercise with open challenges against the senior Christian clergy and the churches have already read out anti-CPI-M leaflets, which generally have an impact on ordinary voters from the community, including women.
Traditionally, Kerala election results are based on this