The Left Democratic Front (LDF) is projected to retain its dominance in Kannur district, long regarded as a Left stronghold, even as the United Democratic Front (UDF) is expected to improve its performance, according to the Manorama News–C Voter exit poll released on Wednesday.

The LDF is expected to win between six and eight of Kannur’s 11 Assembly seats, down from the nine seats it secured in the 2021 elections. The UDF, meanwhile, is projected to win three to five seats in the district, marking an improvement from the two seats it won in 2021.

In terms of vote share, the LDF is estimated to secure 45 per cent of the votes, only marginally ahead of the UDF’s 43 per cent. Despite narrowing the vote share gap to just two percentage points, the Congress-led front may not see a proportionate rise in seat count.

The BJP-led NDA is projected to secure 8 per cent of the vote share in the district, but will fail to win any seat.

Among the key contests, senior CPM leader and former Health Minister K K Shailaja is projected to lose in Peravoor to KPCC president Sunny Joseph. The exit poll rates Sunny Joseph’s chances as safe, indicating a comfortable victory if the projection holds. A defeat for Shailaja in Peravoor would echo the 2011 contest, when the two leaders faced off in the constituency.

In Taliparamba, LDF candidate P K Shyamala, wife of CPM state secretary M V Govindan, is projected to hold the seat comfortably. The UDF had backed CPM dissident T K Govindan in the constituency, but the strategy is unlikely to yield results.

In Kannur constituency, however, the contest is projected to be close between UDF candidate T O Mohanan and LDF’s Ramachandran Kadannappally. BJP candidate C Raghunath is also in the fray.

The Manorama News–C Voter exit poll survey offers the first comprehensive snapshot of voter sentiment across the state. The survey, conducted between April 9 and 24, covered 28,848 voters. The sample was carefully designed to reflect Kerala’s demographic and socio-economic diversity, improving the reliability of the projections.

The exit poll outlines the overall political trend in Kerala, with detailed district-wise insights across all 14 districts. It also decodes key battlegrounds, tracks vote share patterns, and indicates public preference for the Chief Minister’s post.

As per Section 126A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the Election Commission of India had prohibited the conduct and publication of exit polls from 7 am on April 9, 2026, to 6.30 pm on April 29, 2026.