Only two constituencies — Wayanad and Malappuram — out of the nine Lok Sabha seats in the six districts in north Kerala appear to give the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) a winnable edge in the upcoming Parliament polls.
Stakes are high in seven other constituencies as the Congress leadership prepares to nominate incumbent MPs, while the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) strategises a swap of sitting MPs in Malappuram and Ponnani constituencies currently held by M.P. Abdussamad Samadani and E.T. Mohammed Basheer respectively.
Though all the nine seats were won by the UDF in the 2019 elections, the Left Democratic Front (LDF), led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI-M], is determined to reclaim its traditional strongholds.