Kerala Exit Polls
If the above exit poll numbers hold true, it will mean that there’s no heavy anti-incumbency sentiment prevailing in the state to dislodge the Vijayan government. His administration has gathered a general sense of goodwill for its delivery of essential food kits to all ration-card holders during the Covid-19 lockdown last year as well as enhancing the monthly social welfare pensions to different kinds of beneficiaries such as differently-abled, elderly, widows and agricultural labourers.
Although its nature of raising money abroad has attracted censure of CAG and the Opposition, the LDF has tom-tommed the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) as a valid and transparent agency to push investments into key sectors such as education, health, roads and power. The government’s handling of the early phase of the Covid-19 pandemic last year had come in for praise from national and international healthcare experts, though the scale of the pandemic has risen dramatically this year.
The campaigns of the Congress and the BJP meanwhile have been thrust on a range of issues that include alleged corruption and nepotism within the administration, the ‘betrayal’ of sentiments of Hindus on Sabarimala, the colossal debt of the government and the spate of political killings.
The Congress particularly has attacked the government and the chief minister on the gold smuggling case, in which the CM’s former principal secretary was arrested, the allegations of data privacy being violated in the Sprinklr case, the backdoor appointments to plum govt posts to those close to the CPM, and the recent deal purportedly signed with a US company to manufacture deep-sea fishing trawlers.
As for the BJP, it ran a high-pitched campaign, bringing in its star-power from the Centre such as PM Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah, ministers Piyush Goyal, Nirmala Sitharaman, Smriti Irani and chief ministers like Yogi Adityanath. It’s campaign, particularly in seats like Konni, Kazhakoottam and Nemom, rode on the emotive issue of Sabarimala.