The Election Commission may not be able to ensure that all eligible voters in Kerala are armed with voter ID cards well before the polls on April 13.

After taking a defiant stance that she will not settle for anything more than five seats and threatening to leave the opposition UDF coalition, veteran leader K.R.

Opposition leader Oommen Chandy on Friday threw hints that he may step aside from the electoral turf if he was made an accused in the Palmolein import case.
“I am not one to hang on technicalities,” he told mediapersons at the KPCC headquarters here. “If something like that happens, I will face it morally and legally. I will not try to wriggle out of the situation. There is no need to explain it further.”

Keralites cannot be faulted if they feel a sense of déjà vu on poll eve as the beleaguered chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan is once again using his leverage with the masses to persuade his party bosses to come clear on the status of his candidature for the April 13 Kerala Assembly elections.

The first poll forecast in Kerala is out, indicating that the Opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front will end the five-year left Democratic Front reign and come to power, notching 77 to 87 seats in the 140-seat Assembly.

A much-mellowed K. Muraleedharan, son of late veteran K. Karunakaran, said that the Janapriya TV channel that he was planning to launch will not go the way of the Sakshi channel run by the Andhra rebel leader Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

The ruling Left Democratic Front in Kerala is frantically trying to drag the Congress-led united democratic front’s chief ministerial candidate, Mr Oommen Chandy, in the palmoil corruption case ahead of the crucial Assembly polls in the state.

The Congress leadership in Kerala has responded coldly to the AICC directive to deny seats to those who have contested three times even as the rival CPI(M) too reversed its earlier decision not to giv

Frustrated by oldies pulling strings to wangle Assembly seats again, the Youth Congress leaders of the state have rushed to Delhi to appeal to AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi for allocation of more seats to youngsters this time.

A day after the elections were announced for the Kerala Legislative Assembly, junior partners in the ruling CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front and the Opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front have started clamouring for more seats.