Thiruvananthapuram, April 16 (IANS): Election campaigning has picked up in Kerala now after a slow start, as the leaders of the big three parties contesting in the state are taking on one another.

Kerala goes to the polls on April 26 to elect 20 new Lok Sabha members.

The big three – Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress stalwart and Wayanad sitting Lok Sabha MP Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, were in top gear on Monday.

The three star campaigners for their parties did what they do best; attack each other in order to impress not just their voter base but the fence sitters, who eventually turn the deciding factor.

PM Modi appears to have come to terms with reality and did not speak about the numbers.

Before this, whenever PM Modi came to Kerala, starting from early this year, he always asserted that this time the BJP-led NDA would get seats in double digits.

On Monday, when he addressed mammoth election rallies at Trissur and at the state capital, PM Modi was quiet about the numbers and requested voters in Kerala to help him by sending their candidates to Delhi to help him run the country for the next five years.

To add force to his requests, PM Modi went hammer and tongs against CM Vijayan more than the Congress.

PM Modi slammed CM Vijayan, his daughter for corrupt deals and a section of the CPI(M) for robbing the poor by running away with their deposits in cooperative banks run by it.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who for the first time went around parts of his constituency spread over three districts of the state, accused PM Modi of dividing the country besides harping on one leader, one religion and one language.

Attacking the Kerala Chief Minister, Rahul Gandhi asked why Vijayan was attacking him and not PM Modi.

Rahul Gandhi also questioned why the BJP had jailed two non-BJP Chief Ministers and allowed CM Vijayan to go scot-free.

Unsettled by his political opponent’s remarks, CM Vijayan said all what PM Modi said should be taken with a pinch of salt as it is baseless and the BJP-led NDA will not even end up in second place in all 20 constituencies.

“I have been to 13 constituencies and this time the result for the Left will be totally different to what happened in 2019. The voters will teach the Congress-led UDF a lesson and place the BJP in third place,” said CM Vijayan.

In the 2019 polls, the UDF won 19 seats, the Left got one and the BJP finished second just in Thiruvananthapuram and a distant third in rest of the seats.