Vadakara: The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) has gained a slight edge in the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency, thanks to inroads made by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), as per findings of the ManoramaNews-VMR exit polls.
The shifting of incumbent MP K Muraleedharan to Thrissur has resulted in an erosion of UDF votes by almost 10 per cent. This also resulted in gains for the BJP by default paving the way for the LDF to gain in the constituency.
The LDF has not gained vote share despite the decline in UDF votes and hence it becomes imperative for rival fronts to assess how the campaign issues played out among the electorate.
The LDF got the backing of 41.56 per cent of voters in the exit poll and UDF backers were 39.65 per cent. The BJP vote share soared above 17 per cent, probably emerging as the decisive factor in the outcome. The saffron party’s votes more than doubled to 17.69 per cent from 7.52 per cent, a rise of 10.18 per cent. The precise dip in UDF vote share was 9.76 per cent.
The LDF’s gain vis-a-vis the 2019 polls was a meagre 0.09 per cent. In the 2019 polls when P Jayarajan and K Muraleedharan contested, the UDF led by 7.97 per cent votes. Muraleedharan got 5,26,755 votes, Jayarajan 4,42,092 and BJP’s V K Sajeev got 80,128 votes. The UDF got 49.43 per cent of total votes, against LDF’s 41.49 per cent and BJP’s 7.52 per cent.
