Neither the Rahul Gandhi factor nor the issue of entry of women to the Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala, unlike the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, but a discernible anti-incumbency mood against the State government, and certainly strong communal undercurrents, are likely to shape the electoral outcomes in north Kerala this time. This apart, local issues ranging from human-wildlife conflict to debates on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act to development dominate themes in each of the nine constituencies from Kasaragod to Palakkad districts.
Of these, the Congress-led United Democratic Front appears to be in a comfortable edge only in three seats – Wayanad, Malappuram, and Ponnani. In the previous elections, the Congress-Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) combine won all nine seats.
