Congress-led UDF poised for clean sweep in all 20 LS seats in Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram, May 23 (GCCurrentAffairs) The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) is all set to make a clean sweep in all the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala after the counting began at 0800 hours on Thursday.
The UDF gained comfortable leads in the initial hours.
Though the BJP is yet to open an account in Kerala, BJP candidate Kummanam Rajasekharan retained the lead in Thiruvananthapuram constituency only at the begining.
In Pathanamthitta, the epicenter of Sabarimala agitation, K Surendran of BJP could not retain the lead as Congress candidate Anto Antony managed to retain the first position.
As expected, Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who contested from Wayanad, continued his lead right from the beginning and crossed by more than 43,000 votes. However, he is trailing at Amethi to BJP candidate Smriti Irani.
The LDF even lost their steps in their strong hold at Kannur. Though the Modi wave lashed across the nation, Kerala rejected the BJP outrightly.
Though the BJP was confident in gaining upper hand in Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta and Thrissur, they could not maintain the lead in these three seats.
The candidates of IUML, the partner of UDF, gained a comfortable lead with P Kunjhalikutty in Malappuram and ET Muhammad Basheer in Ponnani.