As many as 59 of the 140 constituencies in six southern districts with more than 270 million electorate will be covered under the first phase. While the second phase on April 29 covers most of north and Malabar region, the last phase on May three is for Kannur and Kasaragod districts.

Counting of votes would take place on May 11.

Election Commission sources said today that all arrangements had been made for the peaceful conduct of elections.

Two star campaigners this time are Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Leader of the Opposition V S Achuthanandan. While the UDF had made it clear that Mr Chandy will retain the post if it was voted to power again, the LDF camp is in a confused state on the question of who will lead the Front after the elections.

Despite the confusion on the leadership issue and reports of infighting within the Front leader CPI(M), the morale of the LDF is high as almost all the pre-poll surveys had predicted clean sweep for the Marxist-led combine.

However, the UDF dismissed the surveys, saying they lack credibility.

Sandwitched between the two gigantic fronts is the BJP which is yet to make an electoral breakthrough in the state Assembly. The party is mainly concentrating on 17 seats, including Palakkad from where former Union Minister O Rajagopal is contesting.

In the first phase, a total of 409 candidates are in the fray for the 59 constituencies in the six southern districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta, Kollam, Alappuzha, Idukki and Kottayam.

Prominent candidates from the ruling United Democratic Front whose electoral fortunes would be decided in the first phase of polls are Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, his Cabinet colleagues K M Mani, K R Gouri, M V Raghavan, Babu Divakaran, C F Thomas, K C Venugopal, Adoor Prakash, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, N Sakthan and Deputy Speaker N Sundaran Nadar.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) Central Committee member M A Baby, State Committee member T M Thomas Issac, Students Federation of India state president Sindhu Joy and former Assembly Speaker M Vijayakumar are the prominent LDF candidates who are seeking a mandate.

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