Semi-final shock for Left in Kerala local body polls

Months before Assembly elections, Congress sees resurgence and BJP continues making inroads. Shine Jacob reports

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The results for Kerala’s local body polls came out on November 13, just afew months ahead of the Assembly elections. If traditional trends had prevailed, the ‘semifinal’ would have been a cakewalk for the incumbent Left Democratic Front (LDF) — which had marked a rare return to power in 2021, bypassing conventional political wisdom in the state.

However, the Congress-led United Democratic Fund (UDF) surprised political pundits on Saturday with a landslide victory in the local body polls, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) also recorded a historic breakthrough in Kerala by clinching the Thiruvananthapuram municipal corporation.

The decisive win came as a revival for the UDF — Leader of Opposition in Kerala Assembly V D Satheesan called it the Congress's “best performance since the first elections for local bodies in 1995”. It had won 321 gram panchayats, 38 block panchayats, three district panchayats, 41 municipalities and one corporation in 2020. This time, the party emerged victorious in 505 out of the 941 gram panchayats; 79 out of 152 block panchayats; seven out of 14 district panchayats; 54 out of 87 municipalities; and four of six municipal corporations.

Meanwhile, the NDA won 50 seats in the 101-member municipal corporation in Thiruvananthapuram, securing the corporation rule and putting up its best-ever show. In addition, the alliance secured approximately 20 per cent of the votes across the state based on initial assessment, rising from the 15 per cent vote share last time.