Kerala aspirants make 'courtesy calls' ahead of vote

With just hours left for people to cast votes in the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala, candidates from the three key political parties on Monday got themselves busy making last round visits and expressing confidence about their respective victories.

Earlier during the day it became a meeting of two Malayalam superstars, when Rajya Sabha member Suresh Gopi, BJP candidate from Thrissur, came calling on Mohanlal at the latter's Kochi residence.

"Mohanlal and I, are long time colleagues. On numerous occasions, I have slept at his home, enjoyed food prepared by his mother and wife. I just came to meet him," said Gopi who is contesting his first Lok Sabha election.

Ace comedian Innocent, contesting from Chalakudy, brushed aside the smear campaign against him as baseless. "Yes, I have heard that I was missing when floods hit his constituency last year. I agree, I did not go swimming to the homes of people whose houses were flooded."

"Not many people know that I spent from my pocket to help flood victims. I am comfortably placed in my constituency and the outcome is also certain," said Innocent.

Indian Union Muslim League leader P.K. Kunhalikutty, seeking a second entry to the Lok Sabha from Malappuram, exuded confidence and said but for one or two constituencies, the Congress-led UDF would win all the seats.

M.P. Rajesh of the CPI-M , seeking to score a hat-trick from Palakkad, said he was confident of bettering his 2014 victory margin (of over a lakh of votes). "The Left's three-year governance is my strong point and the poor performance of the Narendra Modi government will also work for me," said Rajesh.

Congress legislator Adoor Prakash, in the fray against A. Sampath of the CPI-M in the Attingal constituency, said the "outsider" campaign against him would not work. "The signs are good and I have no doubts about the outcome," he said.

A.M. Arif, CPI-M legislator taking on Shanimol Usman in the Alappuzha constituency, said there were attempts to forge an unholy alliance by the Congress and the BJP. "The warning has been sounded if the Left forces are weakened then the RSS will enter your kitchens. We are confident that things will pan out well for us," said Arif.

The luck of 227 candidates will be sealed in EVMs when the state goes to the polls in the third phase on Tuesday. Polling will begin at 7 a.m. and end at 6 p.m.

Fifty-seven companies of central forces have arrived in the state where 58,138 police officials and 11,781 special police officials have laso been deployed to man polling booths.

A total of 25,408,711 voters, including 13,111,189 women, 12,297,403 men and 119 belonging to the 'other' gender, will exercise their franchise at 24,970 polling stations, spread across 14 districts.

--IANS

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