The election to the 140-member Assembly of the state Kerala will be held  on April 6, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on Friday. Polling will be held in a single phase. Votes will be counted on May 2.

The term of the Kerala Assembly will end on June 1, 2021.

While announcing the polling dates, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora said the expenditure limit in the state will be 30.8 lakhs per constituency. 

In the previous Assembly election, the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) won 91 seats. The parties in the alliance include the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) which secures 58 seats, the Communist Party of India (CPI) with 19 seats, the Janata Dal (Secular) with three seats and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) with two seats.

CPI(M)’s Pinarayi Vijayan is the CM of the state.

The United Democratic Front (UDF) which comprises of the Congress, Indian Union Muslim League, Kerala Congress (M), Kerala Congress (Jacob), Janata Dal (United) and Revolutionary Socialist Party, won 47 seats.

As a part of the election campaign, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief JP Nadda visited the state earlier this month. Retired engineer E Sreedharan, famously known as ‘Metro Man‘ for spearheading the Delhi Metro project has joined the party for the forthcoming polls. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi too visited the poll-bound states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, this month. 

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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi too visited the state this month.