Left to the fore in Kerala civic poll

Thiruvananthapuram: The Left Democratic Front in Kerala created a surprise of sorts, emerging a clear winner in the elections to the local bodies in the state.

When the results were announced on Saturday, the LDF won more than 550 of the 941 village panchayats. In 2010, its tally was about 365.

It also won 89 of the 152 block panchayats, 44 of the 86 municipalities and three of the six city corporations, and split the 14 district panchayats evenly with the United Democratic Front (UDF), winning seven of them.

The Bharatiya Janata Party also impressed, with a sharp rise in its number of winning candidates and a robust show in pockets including Thiruvananthapuram and Palakkad.

The poll was widely described as the semi-final before the two fronts meet again for the bigger battle of the assembly polls around May, 2016. If this was indeed the semi-final, Saturday’s results would sound ominous for the ruling Congress-led UDF.

Opposition leader V.S. Achuthanandan described the victory as “a recognition for the honest politics of the LDF, its fight against communalism and its united operation style”. Achuthanandan, who was the star campaigner for the LDF, added that “the result is a strong reply by the people to chief minister Oommen Chandy’s corruption-filled government, anti-people policies and appeasement of communalist forces”.

Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president, V.M. Sudheeran said the party “will examine the flaws” and take action.

While the Congress lost ground across the state, what was unmistakable was the strong showing by the BJP on a statewide scale. Five years ago, the party had little to show besides a majority in three village panchayats in Kasaragod district, the stature of being the largest party in Palakkad, and having six councillors in the Thiruvananthapuram city corporation.

This time round, the party is poised to rule in 16 village panchayats, and its councillors in Thiruvananthapuram have leap-frogged from six to 34. In the process, the BJP pushed Congress down to the level of being the third party in the Thiruvananthapuram city corporation.

A beaming BJP state president, V. Muraleedharan said the “result is a reply from the people to those who had written off the BJP”.

The overall setback for the Congress across the state came through most painfully in Kannur, where a Congress rebel candidate held the key to its fortunes. The UDF and LDF ended with 27 seats each, leaving it to P.K. Ragesh, the Congress rebel candidate who won, to decide who will rule the city corporation. Ragesh said he would support the UDF only if the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president V.M. Sudheeran made such a request to him.