KeralaChief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, off late addressed by many in the social mediaas 'Captain', seems set to justify the title by creating history by leading theLeft Democratic Front to its second consecutive victory, a feat which bucks anover 40-year-old trend in the state's electoral politics.
Asthe counting of votes reaches the last few rounds across the state's 140Assembly constituencies, the LDF is leading in 98 seats, with the Congress-ledUnited Democratic Front leading in 41 and the BJP in one seat -- Palakkad whereMetroman E. Sreedharan is leading by 1,700 votes, as against over 5,000 at onepoint.
TheLeft's stunning performance can be attributed to no one other than ChiefMinister Vijayan who led from the front.
Inthe 2016 polls, it was party stalwart V.S. Achuthanandan who led from the frontand after the Left won, Vijayan stepped in to take the Chief Minister's post,while Achuthanandan was given the post of 'Kerala Castro'.
Vijayan,despite running into numerous troubles in various issues, stood his ground andboldly went forward. His writ ran large when it came to selecting partycandidates, with seven ministers and 26 legislators left out.
Evenwith a few rounds of counting left, senior Congress leader and MP Benny Behanansaid they accept the verdict and will sit down to find out what went wrong.
Theleads are on the lines of the exit polls had predicted a victory for the Left,with few of them giving it over 100 seats while sticking to a minimum of 75.
TheCongress-led UDF, which had swept the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, will have to doa lot of introspection as they were banking on a backlash against the Left fromthe Hindu women voters, especially those who are devotees of Lord Ayyappa, overVijayan altering the traditions of the Sabarimala temple in 2018. After gettingknocked out at the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Vijayan decided to wait for the apexcourt directive and then decide.
Likewise,the UDF also expected a backlash against the government from the fishingcommunity which has its presence in around 50 constituencies, after Vijayan wasforced to cancel an agreement with a US-based company for deep sea fishing.
Thatis only turning out to be the nemesis of state Fisheries Minister J.Mercykutty, who is trailing as counting entered the final rounds.
Also,its new ally Kerala Congress-Mani's leader Jose K.Mani, son of late legendaryK.M. Mani whose party was in the Congress-led UDF till last year beforeswitching over to the LDF, was trailing in Pala, represented by his father forover half a century.
Whatwill be painful for him is a few of the other candidates from his party areleading.
Amongthe giant losers at the moment include seven-time legislator P.C. George,presently an independent candidate.
Itonly remains to see if the LDF will end up with three digits, by crossing 100seats.