Shashi Tharoor, a Congress member of Parliament, is confident the UDF will be the next government of Kerala. He says he’s felt this strong desire for change from voters while traveling around and campaigning. After visiting 59 areas, Tharoor says the general feeling is that people want a different set of people in the state assembly.
Campaign visits and ground-level impressions
His extensive travel during the campaign allowed him to hear directly from voters all over the state. Talking to people in the community and party members made him certain the UDF is gaining support as the 2026 assembly election approaches.
He wants to be clear that what he’s saying is what the public generally thinks, not a personal criticism of any specific politicians. Tharoor isn’t trying to go after the politicians themselves, he’s just telling people what voters think of the government’s performance, based on what he heard on his visits.
Anti-incumbency mood driving voter behavior
There’s a strong feeling among voters that the current government should go, and Tharoor thinks this will affect the outcome in many voting areas. This feeling is coming from built-up frustration with the government, delays, and promises that haven’t been kept, not just what politicians are saying during the campaign.
After almost ten years of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) being in power, voters in Kerala seem to want a change. Tharoor is presenting the election as mainly a contest between the UDF and the LDF, and says voters should choose the better option.
Governance issues and project delays highlighted
Tharoor pointed out that the government’s official dates for when projects would be finished don’t match when they were actually finished. He said projects the government said would take five years took ten, and this shows the government isn’t managing things well.
This criticism is about whether things are getting done and how they are being done, not just political slogans. Tharoor is trying to make the argument that how the government performs and how long things take to finish should be the deciding factor for voters in April.
NRI voting and local turnout dynamics
Tharoor also talked about non-resident Indians (NRIs). Recently it has been harder for NRIs to vote. In past elections, NRIs would even rent planes to fly back to vote, but now many can’t afford to do that, so they’ll have less of an effect on the results.
He made the point that the most important thing is the large number of people who live in and vote in Kerala. According to Tharoor, how excited local voters are and how many of them actually vote will be what determines which of the two groups (the UDF or the LDF) will get a majority of the 140 seats in the assembly.
Election calendar and contest expectations
The election for the state Legislative Assembly is on April 9th, the votes will be counted on May 4th, and the current assembly’s term will end on May 23rd. The UDF, with the Congress party in the lead, is trying to remove the LDF, which is led by the CPI(M), after nearly ten years in charge.
Tharoor doesn’t think the national opposition party will be important in this election in Kerala, and describes them as not being a major influence. He is encouraging voters to think about the real choice between the LDF and the UDF, and to vote for positive change.
In conclusion, as the campaign gets more active in each voting area, Tharoor is trying to get people to think about the election in terms of how the government is working, whether things are getting done, and people’s unhappiness with the way things are. As April 9th gets closer, both of the main groups will try to turn the feelings of voters into actual seats when people go to the polls.
