Wednesday, April 26 2006 16:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Thiruvananthapuram: Campaigning for the second phase of assembly polls in Kerala covering 66 segments in six central northern districts, where several high profile contestants including CPI-M stalwart V S Achuthanandan are in the fray, will end tomorrow (Apr 27, 2006).

The outcome in the area, stretching from the state's business hub, Kochi, to the hilly farmlands of Wayanad, is crucial for the major parters of the two rival fronts.

All the top leaders of the UDF's key partner Indian Union Muslim League including P K Kunhalikutty and four ministers of the party in the Oommen Chandy cabinet are seeking re-election from the area.

DIC (K) led by K Karunakaran, which had struck an alliance with the UDF after the CPI-M spurned his party, has put up most of its key contestants in the region including the senior leader's son K Muraleedharan in Koduvally.

In the LDF, CPI has many of its major candidates fighting it out in Thrissur district, where the party is trying to regain the seat it conceded to the Congress in 2001.

The UDF bagged 49 seats in the area in 2001, leaving 17 to the LDF, which had then suffered major losses in some of its northern pockets.

The LDF is hopeful of putting up a sterling performance in Palakkad, Kozhikode and Kannur districts while improving its tally in Thrissur. The front is locked in a grim battle with UDF in Wayanad district, which had for long remained loyal to the Congress.

The focus of the second phase is Malampuzha in Palakkad district where the LDF's Chief Ministerial probable V S Achuthanandan is seeking re-election.

That the 82-year-old Marxist has entered the fray after an intense internal struggle in the party's state unit has added to the significance of the electoral battle in Malampuzha, where Achuthanandan's opponent is Satheesan Pacheni of the Congress.

In the Muslim-dominated Malappuram district, IUML is confident that the party will maintain its hold over the area, unfazed by support pledged to the LDF by Muslim outfits like Jamaat-e-Islami and Peoples Democratic Party.

The CPI (M), claming to have made inroads in Malappuram, has a major candidate in the LDF convener Paloli Muhammad Kutty, who could have been a Chief Ministerial contender had Achuthanandan not been there in the fray.

The DIC (K) president K Muraleedharan is sweating it out in Koduvally in Kozhikode district, a seat gifted to him by the Muslim League. His opponent, a League rebel, is posing a stiff threat to the DIC-K leader whose political future very much depend on the victory in the current round of polls.

The BJP too has its best hope in the area in its senior leader O Rajagopal making a bid from his hometown Palakkad to break the party's electoral jinx in the state.

The campaigning has assumed hectic pace with the Congress president Sonia Gandhi making a whirlwind tour of the central and northern parts of the state earlier this week.