Thrissur is witnessing a pitched electoral battle with K Muraleedharan, Suresh Gopi, and VS Sunilkumar in the fray.

The Manorama News-VMR pre-poll survey predicted an edge for UDF's Muraleedharan over Gopi. The UDF candidate is likely to win 5.92 per cent more votes than the NDA nominee.

The survey predicted 36.51 per cent of votes for Muraleedharan, 30.59 per cent for Gopi and 30.53 per cent for Sunilkumar, making the race for the second position a close one.

The tough competition in Thrissur is likely to affect the outcome.

The UDF is likely to witness a dip of 3.32 per cent of votes compared to 2019, while the LDF's votes may decrease by 0.31 per cent. The NDA, riding on Gopi's charisma, may see an increase in its votes by 2.4 per cent. Other parties may also have an increase of 1.23 per cent in their votes.

Though a confident Gopi proclaimed that he was "taking Thrissur", TN Prathapan of the Congress won the constituency for the UDF, defeating Rajaji Mathew Thomas of the CPI by a margin of 93,633 votes in 2019. Gopi finished third with 2,93,822 votes.

The difference in votes between the LDF and NDA was 2.66 per cent in the previous poll.

The Manorama News-VMR pre-poll survey covered 28,000 people across all the Assembly segments in March. The survey looked at the possible results if the polling was then conducted. The Manorama News-VMR pre-poll survey, "Who will win in 20 seats" is the largest in terms of sample size.