LDF vs UDF vs BJP: Fight for Kerala crown all set for Tuesday

The southern state of Kerala will go to vote on April 6 to decide who will run their government for the next five years.

The state is seeing a fierce competition between the ruling Left front and the opposition parties of the BJP and Congress, for the 140 seats of the State Legislative Assembly. The winning party or alliance needs at least 71 seats to form the government.

The electoral politics in Kerala has been historically dominated by either the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) or the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).

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This time around, the BJP is making a strong effort to overturn the CPI(M) government, pinning their campaign on allegations of corruption against the ruling party and citing cases such as the gold smuggling scam, which has been a thorn on the CPI(M)'s side.

The Congress-UDF and BJP have also tried their best to make a topic of discussion the Sabarimala temple women entry issue.

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Political parties promised freebies such as gas connections and laptops, with pensions for housewives and raising welfare pensions during their campaigns, and the BJP promised a law to curb 'love jihad'.

Here are the key battleground constituencies to watch out for in the Kerala Assembly elections:

Dharmadam Assembly Constituency: Pinarayi Vijayan (Left) vs C K Padmanabhan (BJP) vs C Raghunath (Congress)

Dharmadam is a key constituency for the ruling government as it is represented by CM Pinarayi Vijayan, who is seeing major support from the electorate in the region. Vijayan is going up against the BJP's C K Padmanabhan and the Congress' C Raghunath, both of whom are trying to wrest the constituency from the CM.

Palakkad Assembly Constituency: CP Pramod (Left) vs Shafi Parambil (Congress) vs 'Metro Man' E Sreedharan (BJP)

Palakkad is an important constituency for the BJP because it is fielding political newcomer E Sreedharan, popularly known as the 'Metro Man' for his work on mass transit systems across the country. The party is banking on Sreedharan's expertise and clean image to counter incumbent Shafi Parambil of the Congress.

Nemom Assembly Constituency: Kummanam Rajasekharan (BJP) vs V Sivankutty (Left) vs K Muraleedharan (Congress)

One of the most hotly-talked about constituencies, Nemom, also called the 'Gujarat of Kerala', is the lone Assembly seat held by the BJP in Kerala, and one the party is trying strongly to retain. The saffron party has fielded former Mizoram Governor Kummanam Rajasekharan to go up against the CPI(M)'s V Sviankutty and the Congress' K Muraleedharan.

Puthuppally Assembly Constituency: Oommen Chandy (Congress) vs Jaick C. Thomas (Left) vs N Hari (BJP)

Congress' Oommen Chandy is likely to be one of the oldest representatives of any constituency in the country as he has represented the Puthupally constituency in the Kerala Assembly for over 50 years of his political career. Despite some drama about him moving to Nemom, Chandy has rejected such talks, Chandy is going to continue to contest from this seat, pitting himself against the CPI(M)'s Jaick C Thomas and the BJP's N Hari.

Manjeshwar Assembly Constituency: V V Rameshan (Left) vs AKM Ashraf (IUML) vs K Surendran (BJP)

The BJP seems to be making its presence felt more than that of opposite camps in the Assembly election campaign at Manjeshwar at Kasargod, but the saffron party is concerned about minority consolidation in the constituency that shares borders with Karnataka.

BJP state president K Surendran, who lost by just 89 votes in 2016, is contesting from the constituency with high hopes of a victory. The BJP is accusing the Congress-led UDF and CPM-led Left Democratic Front for the lack of development in the constituency apart from triggering the Sabarimala women entry issue.

The results for the state's election will be announced on May 2, along with results for West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Puducherry.