THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The LDF, which has passed the first round of campaigning, is followed by the UDF in the race to enter the field and catch up. NDA has fielded strong candidates in 12 seats where the BJP has a lot of influence. With the announcement of elections coming up in less than two weeks, Kerala has already succumbed to the heat of elections that beat the summer heat. The current picture is that there will be a close fight in 14 constituencies in the state and there will be a tough triangular contest in six of them.

Compared to the 2019 parliamentary elections, there are more constituencies this time where the results may be unpredictable. There will be tough competition in Thiruvananthapuram, Attingal, Kollam, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Mavelikara, Kottayam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Alathur, Vadakara, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod seats. Of these, a tough triangular fight is expected in Thiruvananthapuram, Attingal, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Thrissur and Palakkad seats.

The Congress candidates for Alappuzha, Wayanad and Kannur seats will be clarified in the coming days. Candidates are yet to be announced for the remaining four seats contested by the BJP and four seats contested by its ally BDJS. While Union Ministers Rajeev Chandrasekhar and V Muralidharan have been fielded in Thiruvananthapuram and Attingal, BJP's A-plus constituencies, the BJP will use all kinds of party tactics in the campaign.

UDF, making its moves for Shashi Tharoor to hoist the banner of victory for the fourth time, and the LDF, which shocked its rivals by fielding former constituency MP Pannyan Ravindran, are on the battlefield in Thiruvananthapuram with increased vigour. Competition will get intense when UDF through strongman Adoor Prakash tries to retain the seat captured from CPM and LDF through V Joy, an invincible young fighter and Varkala MLA, tries to win back the seat they lost at any cost.

The possibility of KC Venugopal contesting in Alappuzha has not been confirmed. Amid speculations that whoever replaces him on the Congress ticket will face off against sitting MP AM Ariff, the BJP has created a triangle contest by fielding party leader Shobha Surendran. The clash is between two Kerala Congress groups in Kottayam. With Thushar Vellappally entering the fray as the BDJS candidate, the road may turn into a three-cornered fight.

Three fighters to take Thrissur

With the entry of Suresh Gopi on the BJP ticket in Thrissur, where a three-cornered contest was held in 2019, sitting Congress MP TN Prathapan and LDF's strong former minister VS Sunil Kumar are in a fierce battle to win the victory flag. Who will take Thrissur is unpredictable now. CPM politburo member and former MP A Vijayaraghavan and BJP's L.C. Krishnakumar are raising a serious challenge to Congress-sitting MP VK Sreekanthan's efforts to stop the Palakkad seat status quo.