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Trends emerging from the Lok Sabha elections have yet again indicated how Kerala chooses to think differently even in the face of a electoral tsunami sweeping the nation.
The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) is extending its lead 19-1 in elections in Kerala with the BJP, which expected to reap electoral dividends based on the Sabarimala campaign, not quite making it.
The BJP-NDA did not appear to be making headway in any of the 20 constituencies till noon, and it still remained unclear whether it would be able to open its account from the state just yet.
While Congress President Rahul Gandhi has increased to more than two lakh votes in Wayanad, highest ever recorded here, at least three more UDF candidates who have crossed the one-lakh-margin in lead.
Many others have sailed the 50,000-mark in lead, surprising not only themselves but all the party leaders in the state in indications how the presence of Rahul Gandhi as a candidate may have influenced the voters.
Pollsters were quick to find consolidation of minority votes and cross-voting from both traditional CPI(M) and BJP strongholds in favour of the UDF in view of an unprecedentedly polarised campaign.
While the BJP had run its campaign over the Sabarimala issue, the Congress had plumped for a softer 'Hindutuva' version, not quite confident how it would be taken by the electorate.
In the end, the voters seemed to have given the Congress the benefit of advantage after witnessing as to what levels a deeply divisive campaign could plummet.
The BJP seems to be giving up its intense fight in Pathanamthitta, the focal point of the Sabarimala campaign, with Anto Antony of the Congress extending his lead to more than 30,000 votes.
Out of the seven Assembly segments here, the Congress candidate is leading in as many as six while the Left Democratic Front has run up to the second position by 12 am on Thursday.
In Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor of the Congress is leading by 16,000-odd votes over star candidate Kummanam Rajasekharan of the BJP, but the last word is not said here yet.
Elsewhere, the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) appeared to head a massive defeat with a lone candidate in Alappuzha holding the fort with a slender mead.
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