THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The results of a keenly-fought and perhaps the most crucial assembly polls held ever in the state will be out on Sunday. Counting of votes in all constituencies will begin at 8am and all results are expected by evening. Trends will be made available from 10am by the election commission, which has made elaborate arrangements for a Covid-compliant counting process.
Drawing confidence from multiple pre-poll and post-poll surveys, the ruling LDF government led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is optimistic of a convincing win. Pinarayi, who met reporters on Saturday to brief about Covid situation, reiterated that he had no doubt about the outcome of the polls. The LDF calculates that even in the worst-case scenario, the number of seats will not fall below the 80-mark.
The mood in the UDF camp is not that upbeat after all exit polls predicted its failure. Yet, Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala spoke of victory with certainty on Saturday. Chennithala urged the UDF workers to keep their morale high and directed counting agents to ensure a fool-proof scrutiny as there is a large number of postal ballots to be counted this time. He and fellow UDF leaders have viewed exit poll results as a continuation of the pro-CPM stand taken by the mainstream media.
In fact, nothing short of a win will be acceptable to Pinarayi and Chennithala. The CM, who has become the poster boy of the Left movement in the country in the last five years, badly wants to retain his fortress so that Left politics will stay relevant.
A battle for survival for CPM, CPI
With exit polls presenting a hopeless scenario in Bengal, winning Kerala has become a battle for survival for the CPM and CPI. Within the CPM too, a failure will prove disastrous for Pinarayi as he had upset a bunch of senior leaders by denying them tickets in the assembly polls.
Chennithala wants to see the results as the fruit of his five years of hard work. As opposition leader, Chennithala had worked hard and brought to public sphere several controversial decisions of the LDF government. In most such cases, the government had to withdraw as the opposition presented fool-proof evidence. Though former chief minister Oommen Chandy too was brought to the leadership of the UDF in the last phase, Chennithala was the one who had led the attack against the government during the campaign phase.
The BJP, which opened its account in the assembly in 2016 by winning Nemom, wants to add at least two-three seats to its tally. However, most of the exit polls predicted a grim picture for the party. The central leadership of the party wants to increase its vote share at least to 17%, 2% more than what it managed in the previous polls. There are players like Ernakulam-based Twenty20 and Kerala Janapaksham led by P C George.