Palakkad: The Palakkad Lok Sabha constituency is witnessing an intense fight and the ruling Left Democratic Front may scrape through with a slender margin, the ManoramaNews-VMR exit polls indicated. A thin majority of 39.8 per cent of voters, who participated in the exit poll, voted for the LDF, versus 38.66 per cent of voters who backed the UDF. The BJP bagged 20.25 per cent of the votes, the exit poll revealed.
The margin between the LDF and the UDF candidates is a slender 1.14 per cent, indicating the intensity of the electoral contest. The LDF is poised to record an increase in vote share of 2.13 per cent compared to the 2019 elections which coincides with a slight dip in the share of the UDF and the BJP. The UDF’s vote share dipped by 0.14 per cent and the BJP recorded a 0.99 per cent fall in vote share, as per exit poll findings.
Sitting MP V K Sreekandan of the Congress recorded a 38.83 per cent vote share in 2019. Kerala Excise Minister M B Rajesh, who was the LDF candidate, secured 37.7 per cent votes. The BJP candidate C Krishnakumar got 21.26 per cent votes.
Sreekandan was projected as the Congress’ young Turk in the 2019 polls. But despite that and the wave created by the candidature of Rahul Gandhi from Wayanad then, he managed to beat his rival Rajesh by a slender margin of 11.637 votes only. Sreekandan got 3,99, 274 votes against the LDF candidate, who got 3,87,637 votes. Third-placed BJP got 2,18, 556 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
