Kerala's first phase poll tomorrow

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 21 (UNI) Kerala will go to the first phase of Assembly polls tomorrow with the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) projecting its development agenda and the Marxist-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) attacking the ''wrong policies'' of the Oommen Chandy Government.

As many as 59 of the 140 constituencies in six southern districts with more than 270 million electorate will be covered under the first phase.

The second phase on April 29 covers most of north and Malabar region while the last phase on May three is for Kannur and Kasaragod districts. Counting of votes would take place on May 11.

Election Commission sources today said all arrangements had been made for the peaceful conduct of the polls.

Two star campaigners this time are Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Leader of the Opposition V S Achuthanandan. While the UDF had made it clear that Mr Chandy will retain the post if it was voted to power again, the LDF camp is in confused on the question of who will lead the Front after the results are declared.

Despite the confusion on the leadership issue and reports of infighting within the Front, the morale of the LDF is high as almost all the pre-poll surveys have predicted clean sweep for the Marxist-led combine.

However, the UDF dismissed the surveys, saying they lacked credibility.

Sandwiched between the two fronts is the BJP which is yet to open its account in the state Assembly. The party is mainly concentrating on 17 seats, including Palakkad from where Former Union Minister O Rajagopal is contesting.

In the first phase, a total of 409 candidates are in the fray for the 59 constituencies in the six southern districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta, Kollam, Alappuzha, Idukki and Kottayam.

Prominent candidates from the ruling UDF whose electoral fortunes would be decided in the first phase Mr Chandy, his Cabinet colleagues K M Mani, K R Gouri, M V Raghavan, Babu Divakaran, C F Thomas, K C Venugopal, Adoor Prakash, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, N Sakthan and Deputy Speaker N Sundaran Nadar.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) Central Committee member M A Baby, state committee member T M Thomas Issac, Students Federation of India state president Sindhu Joy and Former Assembly Speaker M Vijayakumar are the prominent LDF candidates who are seeking a mandate.

MORE UNI CR AK HS1254