Rival fronts in Kerala continue to remain positive on election outcome

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Thiruvananthapuram, April 20 (IANS) With just 12 days left for the votes to be counted, both the traditional rival fronts in Kerala continue to exude confidence that victory would be theirs.

In the past two days there was a thread bare assessment that was done by the CPI-M and the Congress, the two parties that lead the present ruling Left Democratic Front and the United Democratic Front respectively and the outcome was the same, as both of them have concluded that 80 seats will be there for each of them.

This, however, cannot happen as the Kerala Legislative Assembly has 140 members only.

Incidentally, the LDF convenor A.Vijayaraghavan went a step forward and said that it could well cross 100.

However, on Monday it was the turn of the State Congress president Mullapally Ramachandran who interacted with each of the 14 district party presidents and at the end of the day, he too was supremely confident that the UDF will win trumps up and the final tally could well be 81.

What's surprising is that the BJP-led NDA, however, is yet to come out with its threadbare assessment, though they had claimed soon after election day on April 6 that they are going to improve upon the 2016 tally of one seat.

A media critic however summed up all these utterances as nothing but to instil confidence in the rank and file of each and every party and both the traditional fronts are also ready with a bag full of reasons, should they lose.

"For sure, should the ruling Left lose, they will be going to town with their stock statement that the BJP and the Congress was hand in glove and hence they lost. In case it's the Congress party that ends up in the runner up post, they too would say that the BJP tied up with the Left to oust the Congress, as the national enemy of the BJP is the Congress party and not the Left," said the media critic.

However, the public utterances of some of the top Left leaders in the past few days reveal that the confidence that they had shown up soon after the election day appears to have waned and this has brought cheer to the UDF fold.

Meanwhile on Monday, Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, one of those angling for the post of Chief Minister, should the UDF win, has gone on record that he will take the full responsibility, should the UDF fail to touch 71 seat mark.

The otherwise reticent Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who after his goof up on Covid protocols, for which he came under huge attack has gone silent and that too is seen by the UDF top brass, as a sign that victory for them has reached their door step.

And with Covid cases for the first time in the state crossing the one lakh-mark, the orders have also come, irrespective of which front wins, there should be no rallies or victory celebrations on May 2nd .

Though the fate of the traditional rivals has been sealed on April 6, with every passing day from now on, pressure on the top brass of the traditional rivals will be mounting as none would like to take the runner up position.

--IANS

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