A total of 1,203 candidates, including 109 women, are contesting for the 140 assembly seats in which a total of 2.61 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise.
Though poll surveys pointed in favour of LDF forming the next government, Congress is equally confident that they would be scripting a new history in Kerala by breaking the pattern of alternate rule and retain power for another five-year term.
Some Mollywood actors are also in the fray.
BJP has thrown in its hat in the electoral arena after stitching up an alliance with the newly floated Bharat Dharma Jana Sena, a party floated by the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, an organisation of the backward Ezhva Hindu community, seeking to make inroads in the state known for its bipolar polity.
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Modi's controversial Kerala-Somalia comparison saw the Malayalee sentiment getting hurt, with social media going viral with the hash tag #Po mone Modi# (go off Modi) and the two rival fronts attacking him for the remark.
However, BJP defended the Prime Minister, saying people were "twisting facts" on his remarks and he had only highlighted the plight of the tribal community in the state and his desire to improve their living conditions.
corruption scams like AugustaWestland chopper deal, 2G, 3G, Commonwealth games, though the solar scam and brutal rape and murder of a Dalit woman in the state also figured prominently.
After the drubbing it received in the Bihar and Delhi elections last year, BJP had put all its energy on the assembly elections in five states including Kerala, from where it is yet to open an account either to the Assembly or Parliament.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi addressed meetings at Thrissur and the state capital and struck a chord with her response to Modi's remarks on her Italian roots.
BJP National President Amit Shah and a host of Union Ministers, senior Congress leaders A K Antony and Ghulam Nabi Azad, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, party Polit Bureau members Prakash Karat and Brinda Karat, JNU student leader Kanhaya Kumar were among those who actively participated in the campaign.
93-year-old V S Achutanandan, LDF's poll mascot, hit the campaign despite his advanced age and sweltering heat.
He travelled the length and breadth of the state to address poll meetings besides concentrating on his constituency Malampuzha in Palakkad district.
In West Bengal, to defeat the ruling Trinamool Congress, the Marxist party had an electoral understandingwith the Congress, which was a talking point in Kerala where the two parties are rivals.
While the Congress-led UDF is confident that there is no anti-incumbency wave to upset its applecart, the LDF is hopeful of riding to power comfortably.