The much-vaunted Sabarimala campaign appears not to be helping the BJP's cause in Kerala even as the party is heading for a landslide win elsewhere in the country.
The party seems to be forfeiting its chances in the prestigious Thiruvananthapuram seat where star candidate Kummanam Rajasekharan is now put to the second position after two hours of vote counting.
In Pathanamthitta, which houses the Sabarimala temple, K Surendran is fighting the Left Democratic Front's Veena George for the runner-up position after early lead gained by incumbent Anto Antony of the Congress.
In the rest of the three A-listed seats in the state, the party has not been able to make much of a headway even as Congress, at best an also-ran in the Sabarimala campaign, appears to be making big gains.
Party president Rahul Gandhi is leading the charge from Wayanad where he has already secured a lead of more than a lakh votes, relegating the NDA candidate Thushar Vellappally to a far-distant third position.
Out of the 20 seats at stake in Kerala, the Congress-led United Democratic Front is leading in as many as 18 with the Left Democratic Front (LDF) managing a slender lead in Kasaragod and Alappuzha.
This is a massive setback personally for Kerala's Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who led the counter charge against the BJP and the Congress blaming them for having polarised the campaign over matters of faith rather than governance.