Polling for the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala will take place on April 26, according to the schedule announced by the Election Commission of India on Saturday.
Like the past general elections , Kerala will have its elections on a single day, avoiding clashes with Id-ul-Fitr, Vishu, and Thrissur Pooram.
The election notification will be issued on March 28 and the last date for submission of nominations is April 4. Scrutiny of nominations will be on April 5 and the last date for withdrawal of nominations is April 8. However, Kerala will have to wait 39 days after polling, almost similar to the previous election cycle, for results to be declared on June 4.
The mainstream political parties have kicked off their campaign even before the formal notification. Key issues ranging from the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act to the complexities of electoral bonds, ragging incident at the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at Pookode to man-animal conflicts have dominated the campaign.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) nominees were the first off the blocks with their high voltage campaign and roadshows, while the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) had a tortuous time in finalising its candidates.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance is yet to announce candidates for a few seats, most notably Wayanad, where Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is in the fray for the second time.
In the 2019 Parliament elections, the UDF won 19 of the 20 seats, with the CPI(M) winning in Alappuzha, the lone seat for the LDF. Technically, the LDF has two members following the Kerala Congress (M) walking out of the UDF before the local body polls in 2020. It remains to be seen if this shift will work in favour of Left parties in the polls, just as it yielded electoral success in the 2021 Assembly elections.
The LDF has fielded heavyweight candidates against the Congress across the State, sending out a clear message that its alliance within the INDIA bloc holds no importance for the Left coalition in Kerala.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s frequent visits to Kerala have injected a new dynamic into electioneering, as the BJP seeks to further bridge the north-south divide in these elections.
The defection of Padmaja Venugopal, daughter of former Chief Minister K. Karunakaran, and a slew of local Congress leaders to the BJP has added a fresh narrative to the campaign.