Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 14 (IANS): The third and final phase of the civic polls in Kerala began at 7 a.m. on Monday in the northern districts of Kerala and the key players in the contest, which is seen as the semifinal ahead of the finals -- the Assembly polls to be held in May next year -- expressed confidence that victory would be theirs, as people are strongly behind them.
Soon after casting his vote at his village in Pinarayi in Kannur, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who was accompanied by his family, told the media that they are going to secure a historic win.
"Detractors of us (the Congress and the BJP) have joined together and with the help of Central agencies have been doing their best to discredit us, but, the people of Kerala have been angry and they are going to vote for us and provide us with a historic win," said Vijayan.
"On 16th, the day of the counting of votes will reveal who is the victor, even as attempts to discredit us is going on. On that day, all will know what's the outcome," added Vijayan.
Reacting to the allegations by the opposition parties that he had violated the poll conduct by announcing on Saturday that the Covid vaccines would be distributed free, Vijayan laughed and said, since they have nothing else to say, so they are saying this.
"Kerala is the only state in the country which is providing free Covid treatment and what was said about vaccines was just a follow-up on Covid. I have not violated any rule," reiterated Vijayan.
Polling is taking place in Malappurram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasargode districts, while other 10 districts had polls on December 8 and 10.
Soon after casting his vote at his home town in Kozhikode district, State Congress president Mullapally Ramachandran said there was no doubt that they were going to have a crushing win.
"I say this with a lot of conviction because I had the chance to travel to all the 14 districts of the state four times and I can sense the pulse of the people that the vote would be against this Left government, which has lost all its bearings of governance.
"The sense of dejection is seen especially among the new generation, who are educated and after writing tests do not have jobs because this government has made backdoor appointments. We are going to have a crushing victory," said Ramachandran.
State BJP president K.Surendran, who also cast his vote in Kozhikode said the BJP will do extremely well and it's just a matter of time to know that.
Of the around 21,000 seats to which elections are being held in the three-phase civic polls, in the last polls in 2015, the CPI-M led with around 55 per cent of the seats, followed by the Congress led-UDF and the BJP had a mere 1200 seats.