National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate and Bharatiya Janata Party's state president K Surendran will win the Manjeswaram assembly constituency, according to the Manorama News exit poll result released on Thursday.

 

Surendran will gain 35.9 per cent votes, the survey predicts.

 

Indian Union Muslim League candidate AKM Ashraf will finish runner-up with 35.3 per cent votes.

 

The exit poll predicted a third place finish for the Left Democratic Front candidate V V Rameshan with 27 per cent votes.

 

IUML has been winning Manjeswaram since 1987, barring 2006.

 

Manjeswaram had elected representatives of four major political parties - Congress, CPI, CPM and IUML - and two independent candidates, but it never favoured BJP, which finished runners-up in seven consecutive elections.

 

The saffron party came close to winning the seat in 2016 when Surendran, who fought against P B Abdul Razak, lost by a narrow margin of 89 votes. Surendran had questioned the verdict in the High Court, but he withdrew the case after Razak’s demise in 2018. A by-election ensued in 2019. IUML’s M C Kamaruddhin won the poll, defeating BJP’s Ravisha Tantri by 7,923 votes.

 

This is Surendran’s third attempt to change his party’s fortunes in Manjeswaram (He debuted in 2011). He is contesting from Konni in Pathanamthitta district too.