Thiruvananthapuram: With the public campaign for the Lok Sabha polls to all the 20 seats in Kerala coming to an end by Wednesday evening, political parties are keeping a tight vigil on the last-minute undercurrents and vote trade attempts.
Kerala is witnessing triangular contests in at least five seats this time and hence the chances of undercurrents and unethical ways of wooing voters are quite high this time.
Already there were allegations and counter allegations against some candidates of trying to influence voters by giving money.
Apart from machineries, all the parties are also using the service of professionals and private agencies to collect feedback and carry out corrective measures.
The BJP is highly alert against the chances of Congress - CPM under currents as it is widely speculated that Congress-led UDF and CPM-led LDF could reach at mutual understandings to ensure BJP's defeat.
In view of allegations that some BJP leaders used to indulge in vote trades in Kerala during the earlier elections, the BJP and RSS national leaderships are also learnt to be keeping a tight vigil in Kerala this time.
Meanwhile, the culmination of the over a month-long campaign witnessed minor clashes between party workers at many places.
Congress MLA C R Mahesh suffered minor casualties in the UDF-LDF clashes in the Alappuzha constituency where AICC general secretary K C Venugopal is contesting.
Many candidates including the BJP candidate in Thiruvananthapuram Rajeev Chandrasekhar and his opponent Congress sitting MP Shashi Tharoor made a tour on elevated platforms of cranes and earth movers.
Published 24 April 2024, 16:17 IST