S Sreesanth said the heat does not bother him as he is used to it on the cricket field.
It's not just the heat of the contest that election candidates in Kerala need to brace themselves for. The abnormally high temperatures and a heat wave have thrown up new challenges.
From hiring buses for party workers, to frequent water breaks, to changing campaign timings, the political parties have had to rearrange their campaign trails.
After an open jeep procession and filing his nomination of Friday, former cricketer and BJP's star candidate from Thiruvananthapuram, S Sreesanth, said, "Heat is not a problem. I am used to it on the cricket field. As long as we keep ourselves hydrated everything will be fine."
After a morning outdoor procession which started by 7am, CPM candidate and former lawmaker TN Seema shifted gears to indoor meetings before noon, because of the heat wave alert. "It's not just me, my party workers are struggling with the heat too. It's not advisable to be outdoors in the afternoon, so we wind up our door-to-door outdoor campaign before noon itself. But this heat has not dampened my confidence of winning," she says.
Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has asked the Centre to declare the state as drought-affected, after a high-level meeting. As temperatures have risen beyond 40 degrees celsius in several parts of Kerala in the last few days, the government has supplied 18 crore litres of water to deal with water scarcity.
"We expect some summer showers by sixth of next month but we cannot depend upon that for everything. The crop loss has not been severe because it is not the cropping season. With elections, the state administration is on an overdrive to address the needs of the common man because of the unprecedented heat wave," Sekhar Kuriakose from the state disaster management committee told NDTV.
Kollam, Palakkad, Kaargode and Kannur are among the worst-hit districts, as Kerala suffers from a 40 per cent summer rainfall deficit.