Cine actor, ex-Congress leader and rtd civil servant in LDF list

In certain seats,the UDF has an edge over the LDF but the voters are disenchanted with the ruling front.

In such places independents could garner votes outside the political base of the Left and in such places independents could prove effective,” CPI-M sources said.

But the UDF leaders reject this optimism of the rival holding the ensuing polls are keenly fought on political issues and voters would not be bluffed by the LDF's tactics.

This was not for the first time that the Left is fielding cultural personalities as independents.

As back 1960s, eminent Malayalam writer S K Pottekkat, who later won the coveted Jnanpith Award, emerged victorious from Thalassery in north Kerala.