Kerala: LDF Secures 17 of 30 Seats in Local Body By-Elections; BJP Draws a Blank
N S Sajith
REITERATING popular support for the state government’s policies, the people of Kerala delivered a thumping victory to the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the local body by-elections held on February 24, across 13 districts in the state. The LDF won 17 out of 30 seats, including the Sreevaraham ward in the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation. The BJP failed to secure a single seat.
The LDF secured victories in one block panchayat ward, two municipal wards, and 13 grama panchayat wards, wresting four seats previously held by the UDF. This emphatic pro-incumbent result comes just months ahead of the local body elections scheduled for the last month of this year. These results are seen as a harbinger of future victories in both the upcoming local body elections and the Assembly elections.
The UDF managed to win only 12 seats, while one seat was won by the Islamic organisation SDPI with the support of Congress votes. In two panchayat wards in Kasargod, LDF candidates were elected unopposed. Notably, almost all LDF candidates saw an increase in their vote share compared to the previous elections held in 2020.
Within the LDF, the CPI(M) won 12 seats, the CPI won 2 seats, and the Kerala Congress (M) and LDF-backed independent candidates secured one seat each. On the UDF side, the Congress won 10 seats, while the IUML and Kerala Congress (J) won one seat each.
In the Sreevaraham ward of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, the LDF won by a narrow margin of 12 votes. The Congress’s vote share in this ward dropped significantly to 277 from 408 in the previous election. In the Pulippara ward of the Pangode Grama Panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram, Congress votes were cross-voted in favour of the SDPI, a Muslim fundamentalist party. The Congress’s vote share plummeted to 148 from 455, while the SDPI’s vote share surged to 674 from 363.
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