Thiruvananthapuram, May 2 (IANS): Counting of votes that began at 8 a.m. on Sunday in Kerala is showing that the Left after leading in the postal ballot, continued to maintain its lead when the EVMs were opened, while the Congress led-UDF made a slight forward progress and the BJP was leading in two constituencies.

In the 140-member Kerala Assembly, according to the latest reports the Left leads in 80 constituencies while the Congress-led UDF is ahead in 58 and the BJP in two seats.

All the exit polls had predicted a clean victory for the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left with a minimum of 75 seats and a maximum of 120 seats.

The pattern in what has been seen so far is there are quite a number of seats where the balance is shifting between the Left and the Congress-led UDF candidates.

The BJP which presently has one seat at Nemom in Thiruvananthapuram, continues to lead and so is Metroman E.Sreedharan at the Palakkad constituency.

By now on an average two to three rounds of counting has been over and there are about 13 to 15 rounds in each constituency, and in the constituencies where the fight is close, one will have to wait till the last rounds to be counted.

All the leaders are leading, including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Oommen Chandy, Ramesh Chennithala but two Ministers J.Mercykutty and T.P. Ramakrishnan are trailing.

At Badagara, K.K. Rema, the wife of slain former CPI-M leader T.P. Chandrashekeran, who has been supported by the UDF, is leading with over 3,000 votes.