LS polls: Congress-led UDF leads in majority of seats in Kerala as counting progresses

Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress-led UDF continued to maintain its lead in the majority of seats in Kerala on Tuesday, as the counting of EVM ballots entered into the final phase, with its candidates marching ahead with comfortable margins in its strongholds against their nearest rivals from the CPI(M)-led LDF and the BJP-led NDA.

Putting an end to the electoral drought for the BJP in Kerala, actor-politician Suresh Gopi, the saffron party's candidate, secured a comfortable margin of 75,079 votes in the central Kerala constituency, against his rivals of the LDF and the UDF.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency and many other sitting MPs of the party and its allies in their respective seats displayed strong performances as the counting progressed.

Almost similar to the results of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, in which the Left could win only one seat, the candidates of the ruling CPI(M)-led alliance suffered severe blows even in their strongholds like Kasaragod, Kannur, Vadakara, and Palakkad.

However, CPI(M)'s K Radhakrishnan maintained a lead against his nearest rival, Ramya Haridas of the Congress, in the Alathur seat, and the party's candidate in the Attingal seat, V Joy, slightly increased his margin to over 4000 votes against his nearest rival, Congress' Adoor Prakash.

UDF candidates Dean Kuriakose (Congress) and N K Premachandran (RSP), from Idukki and Kollam Lok Sabha seats, respectively, were leading by a huge margin over their nearest rivals, according to trends.

The Thiruvananthapuram LS seat, which witnessed a neck-and-neck fight between the Congress and the BJP, saw the Congress's Shashi Tharoor regaining a comfortable lead against BJP's Rajeev Chandrasekhar.