UDF candidate K Babu is tipped to win the Thrippunithura assembly constituency in Ernakulam district, according to Manorama News-VMR exit poll results.

Babu, a former excise minister, will gain 43.5 per cent of votes while LDF candidate M Swaraj is slated to get 30.6 per cent. NDA's K S Radhakrishnan will finish third with 23 per cent of votes, the exit poll predicts.

The Thrippunithura contest assumes significance as Babu and Swaraj came face to face for the second consecutive time. The young CPM leader had staged an upset and wrested the seat from Babu in 2016.

Babu, who had been representing the constituency for 25 years, lost the 2016 polls in the wake of the bar bribery allegations against him. Swaraj defeated Babu by a margin of 4,467 votes. BJP candidate Thuravoor Viswambharan had polled 29,843 votes then.

Swaraj is seeking re-election this time with the tall claims of development initiated by him in the constituency and the LDF government's performance.

The UDF rubbished these claims and raised the controversy over the Sabarimala verdict as a major poll issue. It also tried to corner Swaraj over a controversial speech he had made during the Sabarimala agitations.