New Delhi [India], May 3 : Keralam Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan changed his social media bio on Sunday, one day ahead of the counting of votes for the recently held Assembly elections in the State.
The changed bio of Vijayan now reads "Polit Bureau Member, Communist Party of India (Marxist)".
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is eyeing a historic third consecutive term from his home turf. While the constituency is a storied fortress for the Left, the 2026 race is shaping up to be more than just a victory lap, both from the United Democratic Front led by Congress, and BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
The UDF had fielded VP Abdul Rasheed against the Chief Minister, whereas on the other hand, K Ranjith contested on the BJP's ticket.
Vijayan won the Dharmadam seat comfortably in 2016 and 2021.
During the 2021 elections, Vijayan ended up securing 95,522 (59.8%) votes, whereas United Democratic Front candidate C Raghunathan received 28.4% of the total votes polled.
Previously, in 2016, the Kerala CM, who contested from the seat for the first time, secured a victory by a margin of 30,905 votes from UDF's Mambaram Divakaran. Vijayan on end received 87,329 votes, whereas a total of 50,424 electors voted for Divakaran.
Exit poll projections have predicted that the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) is poised to win Keralam assembly polls.
Axis My India projected a comfortable majority for UDF and said it will win 78 to 90 seats in the 140-member assembly. It said the Left Democratic Front would win 49 to 62 seats and the BJP-led NDA zero to three seats.
According to People's Pulse, the ruling LDF is poised to win 55 to 60 seats, UDF 75 to 85 seats and NDA 0-3 seats.JVC projected that UDF would win with 72 to 84 seats, LDF 52-60 seats and BJP-led NDA three to eight seats.
Keralam went to the polls in a single phase on April 9 and the voter turnout was 78.27 per cent.
The LDF had won the 2021 polls and broken the trend of the state having a change of government every five years. The last polls were a setback for UDF and exit poll predictions will be music to the ears of the leaders of the Congress-led alliance.LDF had won 99 out of 140 seats in the 2021 polls with CPI-M winning 62. Pinarayi Vijayan became Chief Minister for another term.
The results of Keralam elections will be out on May 4, along with the outcome of elections in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam and Puducherry.
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