In Kerala, the Church is a crucial political player Updated: Updated: April 05, 2021 23:38 IST Any polarisation in the UDF’s Christian vote will upset its plans of coming back to power Share Article AAA Any polarisation in the UDF’s Christian vote will upset its plans of coming back to power Going into the final lap of the Kerala Assembly election campaign, the million-dollar question is whether the Left Democratic Front (LDF) can buck the four-decade-old trend of the electorate voting out the government in the State. Even as pre-election surveys and opinion polls predict a second term for Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the outcome would still depend on many factors, including the polarisation of Christian votes in central Kerala. While pollsters generally tend to take the Christian community as a monolith, or distinguish only between Syrian Christians and Latins, it is important to analyse the historic role played by the Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala politics to establish the root cause of this vote shift.