Lok Sabha elections 2024: Senior politicians, candidates, actors cast votes in initial hours of polling

Thiruvananthapuram: Prominent persons, including senior politicians and candidates contesting in the Lok Sabha polls, turned up during the initial hours of polling in Kerala for the general election.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan, BJP state president K Surendran, saffron party candidates Suresh Gopi and Anil Antony as well as Congress' K C Venugopal and Shafi Parambil were seen casting their votes early in the morning.

Besides them, Congress stalwart A K Antony, KPCC president K Sudhakaran, LDF convener E P Jayarajan and CPI(M)'s Thomas Isaac also came in the morning to exercise their right to vote.

Leaders of the CPI(M)-led LDF, Congress-led UDF and the BJP-led NDA claimed that their respective fronts will create history in the state.

Vijayan claimed that Kerala will 'gift' a historic win to the LDF, a sentiment which was echoed by other Left leaders who all said that the BJP was never accepted by the people of the southern state and this trend will continue.

Responding to reporters' queries about the BJP's claim of getting double digit seats in Kerala, the CM said the saffron party will not even get one seat.

He said that even the Congress-led UDF will not win any seat as the people were unhappy with them.

Antony, Venugopal, Satheesan and Shashi Tharoor said that there is a pro-Congress and UDF wave in the state and the grand old party was the better alternative.

They all said that there was an anti-incumbency wave against the Centre and the Left government in Kerala and therefore, the Congress will win in all 20 seats.

The Congress leaders also said that for the survival of the country, the 'communal and fascist' government at the Centre should be removed from power and a government by the Congress-led INDIA bloc should come there.

Candidates and leaders of both the LDF and UDF urged everyone to exercise their franchise as this election will decide the future of the nation.

Besides them, prominent actors, including Sreenivasan, Fahadh Faasil, Tovino Thomas and Renji Panicker, as well as church heads like Major Archbishop of the influential Syro-Malabar Church Raphael Thattil and Cardinal George Alencherry also voted in the morning.

Polling commenced in the state at 7 am today.