TRIVANDRUM, 9 May — As the campaigning for the assembly elections ended yesterday, at least five opinion polls have predicted a victory for the Congress party-led opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) in the southern state of Kerala. But the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) still remains confident.
All have predicted that the UDF would get between 75 and 100 seats in the 140-member assembly. The latest opinion poll published on Sunday by Jain TV, which carried out a survey in 51 constituencies and among 3,650 voters, predicted that the UDF would win in 78 to 82 seats while the LDF could win only in 55 to 62 seats.
The others who have already predicted a UDF sweep are two newspapers — The Times of India and the Pioneer and two weekly magazines — The Outlook and The Week. Kerala Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar appears to be the most upset over these opinion poll results.
“All the media-sponsored opinion poll results are nonsense and the LDF (Left Democratic Front) would get 75 seats. BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) papers are doing all this. It is nothing but nonsense,” Nayanar told reporters at Cochin.
The BJP is also hopful of capturing its first ever seat tomorrow in the Kerala Assembly. The state is uphill political terrain for the BJP, which leads the ruling coalition at the center. The BJP’s support base is mainly in the north of the country and its Hindu extremist credo traditionally has had few takers in Kerala, which has a 91 percent literacy rate, the highest in India where the average is 65 percent.
The CPM central committee member and former lawmaker M.A. Baby also said the LDF, which his party heads, was sure of winning the polls, as there is no anti-incumbency factor in Kerala.
“These opinion polls are not authentic and foolproof. Previous surveys have proved this,” he said.
“These opinion polls do help the independent voter and all those voters sitting on the fence undecided on whom to vote. The stage has come that there is no point in voting for a candidate who is going to loose. Moreover, we really do not know if an opposition legislator could do anything positive for his constituency,” said Primna Jacob, Jishy Kurian and K.G. Kumar, all first time voters in the state’s Kottayam district.
Meanwhile, clashes between the workers of United Democratic Front (UDF) and Left Democratic front (LDF) were reported from different parts of the state yesterday. A UDF leader was hurt in stone throwing, allegedly by LDF activists, in Moovattupuzha constituency.
UDF and LDF leaders accused each other of throwing stones and explosives against each other near the airport in the Trivandrum West constituency, where CMP leader M.V. Raghavan and Kerala Congress-Joseph nominee Antony Raju are engaged in a pitched electoral battle. Four people were hurt in the clashes.
