The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) just about scraped through to victory in Kerala Friday, with the Left Democratic Front (LDF) putting up a valiant fight in the battle for 140-member assembly.

The UDF won 72 seats, just one more than the 71 needed to form a government, a result that kept people and political parties on tenterhooks for more than five hours after vote count began at 8 a.m.