Kerala

The assumption gained strength after their editorial in the latest edition of the People's Democracy, that came out, on Friday. "There is an effort by sections of the media and some political commentators to reduce this historic victory solely to the personality and role of Pinarayi Vijayan.

R. Balakrishna Pillai was ailing due to old age problems and was a few days back admitted to the hospital following breathing problems. However he passed away after coming to know that his film star son K.B. Ganesh Kumar won his fifth straight assembly elections from Pathanapuram in Kollam district.

Even as the candidates are busy, what will actually determine if Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan writes himself into record books by retaining power, will largely depend on political under-currents which come into play on the eve of polling day.

It's for the first time that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is leading his party and the Left Democratic Front in the state. In today's world, it's the social media, which even Vijayan himself has accepted, is their biggest campaigner. A post by one of the most popular sons of the soil Communists in Kannur, P. Jayarajan indicates that things are a bit fluid for the CM.

"With the election campaign reaching its peak, the BJP's top brass, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and other senior Congress leaders, have been portraying Kerala in a poor light," said Vijayan and recalled Modi's comparison of Kerala to that of Somalia during his 2016 Assembly campaign here.

"Don't be misled and deceived by the now smooth talks of Vijayan. His ministers are now on an apology spree. This is just done to cross the bridge (Assembly polls) and if by any chance he manages to cross it, then it would spell disaster for Kerala. Kerala will be finished if he gets a second term," said Antony.

The Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) is a government-owned financial institution formed to mobilise funds for infrastructure development from outside the state revenue. Numerous projects in the state have been assigned funds from the KIIFB.

In Kerala, while the fight is between the traditional rival fronts -- the present ruling CPI-M led Left Democratic Front and the Congress-led United Democratic Front, also in the running is the BJP -led National Democratic Alliance. In the outgoing Assembly, the Left in 2016 had won 91 seats and secured 43.48 per cent while the UDF had 47 seats with 38.81 per cent votes while the BJP had just one seat and secured 14.96 per cent votes.

In a series of tweets, Sreedharan, also known as Metroman, said: "Keralites have been governed alternatively by the LDF and UDF who have no interest in the state's progress. The hapless Keralite faces a daily dose of corruption, misgovernance and stagnation, while the rest of India surges ahead under the able leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modiji."

"Just look into the decentralisation process that the Left started with the People's Plan, it later became a model that was studied universally. We came out with an election manifesto for the previous Assembly elections and every year we came out with a progress report on what happened and now when we look back we can say that of the 600 promises that were made we could accomplish 570," added Vijayan.