Thiruvananthapuram, May 13: Congress-led UDF appears to be losing ground in Kerala to its main rival CPI-M-led LDF ahead in 18 of the 20 Lok seats at 0900 hrs. The BJP-led NDA is not leading in any seat. The two seats where the UDF is ahead are Ponnani, where IUML general secretary E Ahmed is the party candidate and Mavelikkara where AICC secretary Ramesh Chennithala is fighting C S Sujatha of the CPI-M.
JD (S) stalwart M P Veerendrakumar has established a comfortable lead of over 12,000 votes in Kozhikode over V Balram (INC).
For the first time, IUML is in a slippery position in Manjery where the party aspirant K P A Majeed is trailing CPI-M's T K Hamsa by over 10000 votes. In a keenly fought three-cornered fight in Thiruvananthapuram Union Minister O Rajagopal is in the second position over INC's sitting MP V S Sivakaumar while former chief minister P K Vasudevan Nair (CPI) is leading.
Bureau Report