Kerala elections: Parties, leaders & their targets, Kerala assembly elections 2016, Kerala polls, Kerala latest news, United Democratic Front , Left Democratic Front, Hindu Front, Hindu Front targets, CPI(M) , VS Achuthanandan, Oomen Chandy

Kerala elections: Parties, leaders & their targets, Kerala assembly elections 2016, Kerala polls, Kerala latest news, United Democratic Front, Left Democratic Front, Hindu Front,Hindu Front targets, CPI(M), VS Achuthanandan, Oomen Chandy

It's not just the United Democratic Front versus Left Democratic Front this time – all eyes will be on the newly formed Hindu Front.

Kerala’s upcoming election should be easy to decipher. It’s a two-horse race – Congress versus the Communists – as it has been for decades now.

But the sudden intrusion of the Bharatiya Janata Party, a renewed focus on a salacious corruption scandal and an attempt to alter the caste and community political framework has turned the state upside down.

United Democratic Front

Parties: Congress, Indian Union Muslim League, Kerala Congress (M), Revolutionary Socialist Party, Janata Dal (United), Kerala Congress (Jacob), Janadipatya Samrakshana Samithi (Rajan Babu faction)

Leader: Chief Minister Oomen Chandy

The United Democratic Front was stitched together by Congress stalwart K Karunakaran in 1970s and then built up even further by the 72-year-old Chandy, who has managed the surprising feat of keeping the UDF in power for five years despite a tiny 4-seat majority in the assembly.

Chandy’s coalition came to power in May 2011 with a slogan ‘care and development’ has quite a few mega infra projects and social welfare initiatives to showcase, but its attempts at advertising were hit by the emergence of a few corruption scandals mid-way.

Chandy is currently being targeted by the Opposition over several corruption scandals.

UDF targets: Fight corruption allegations, bring back allies, undercut ‘Hindu resentment’ claims

Left Democratic Front

Parties: Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Janata Dal (Secular), Nationalist Congress Party, Kerala Congress (Skaria Thomas), Indian Congress (Socialist), Indian National League (not a member, only seat sharing)

Leaders: Pinarayi Vijayan, VS Achuthanandan

The Communists have always been the yin to the UDF’s yang, having traded spells of rule with the Congress-led alliance evenly over the past three decades.

The CPI(M)’s own internal battles have been so vicious that, for the first time, people are considering the possibility that Kerala might not undergo its traditional five-year trading of LDF for UDF and vice-versa.

LDF targets
Settle infighting, prevent Hindu polarisation and maintain Ezhava support

Hindu Front

Parties: Bharatiya Janata Party, Bharatha Dharma Jana Sena

Leader: K Rajasekharan

Scandals and development alone cannot influence election. The outcome hinges on the caste and communal equations to a large extent. The front that plays these cards well can win elections. With Hindus accounting for about 54 percent of the state’s 3.3 crore population, the Bharatiya Janata Party has set about working hard to woo the 70 active Hindu organisations with the aim of creating a large Hindu Front that could upset traditional calculations in the state.

The BJP has already roped in Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, or SNDP, an umbrella organisation of Ezhavas, the largest Hindu community in the state, and is now eying the Nair Service Society, representing the upper caste Hindus, and other similar organisations.

Party president Amit Shah, who discussed the party’s poll strategy at a core-committee meeting at Aluva in Ernakulam district recently, wants even small groups brought to the party fold. He asked party workers to win over small groups and leaders, even if they influence only a few hundred voters.

Hindu Front targets

Bring Hindu organisations into the fold, sow divisions in the existing alliances

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