Polling began at 7 am on Tuesday in Kerala for the 140 seats single-phase election to the state assembly, amid heavy security.
'Metroman' E Sreedharan, who is the BJP-NDA candidate from Palakkad constituency was among the early voters in the state.
After casting his vote, Sreedharan said that BJP will for sure put an impressive show in the Kerala Assembly Elections adding that he will win from Palakkad with a big margin.
"BJP will have an impressive show this time, there is no doubt about it. I will win from the Palakkad constituency with a big margin. My entry into BJP has given a different image to the party," E Sreedharan said.
Sreedharan is contesting against sitting MLA Shafi Parambil of Congress and CP Pramod of CPI-M.
Sreedharan, the architect of the metro rail system in the country, joining the BJP was a much-celebrated event among the BJP lovers in and out of the state. BJP hopes to get the benefit from their undeclared Chief Minister face, Sreedharan's candidature throughout the state.
Long queues were seen in several polling stations much before the polling began.
Kerala had witnessed a fierce campaign in the run-up to the polls by the ruling CPI(M) led Left Democratic Front (LDF), Opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), and the BJP led NDA.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, seven of his cabinet colleagues, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala and senior Congress leader Oommen Chandy are among the 957 candidates in the fray in the state.
Voting is underway with strict adherence to COVID-19 protocol across the 40,771 polling stations in the state where 2. 74 crore voters will decide the fate of the contestants.
(With inputs from Agencies)
