Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 29 (IANS) : The Congress-led UDF has suffered a setback in its first electoral test after the V.D. Satheesan government took office, losing ground to the LDF in the local body byelections held across Kerala on September 28.
The counting of votes took place on Tuesday. The results in 38 wards saw the UDF’s tally fall from 22 sitting seats to 19, while the LDF increased its count from 15 to 18.
Twenty20, an ally of the BJP-led NDA, retained its lone seat.
More significant than the overall numbers was the exchange of sitting seats between the two fronts.
The LDF wrested seven wards previously held by the UDF, while the UDF captured four wards held by the Left.
The results thus pointed to a shift in several local pockets rather than a simple consolidation of existing support.
The setback comes barely months after the UDF swept the Assembly elections and formed the government under Satheesan.
The local body verdict, however, cannot be treated as a direct measure of the government’s statewide standing, given the limited number of wards involved.
The 38 wards were spread across 12 districts and included different tiers of local government.
For the LDF, which suffered a severe defeat in the Assembly elections, the gains provide some political relief.
The Left had entered the bypolls seeking to recover ground after the Assembly rout and had a particular focus on wards vacated by its former local representatives who had moved to the Assembly.
The UDF’s losses were particularly significant in some areas where the contest was marked by internal differences and local factors.
In Thiruvananthapuram district, the LDF captured the Mangalam-Mundakkal ward of the district panchayat and the Anchuthengu block panchayat division, strengthening its position in the Mangalam panchayat.
The LDF also captured the Chittur-Paruthikkavu ward in Palakkad, which had been represented by Suresh Achuthan before he became an MLA. The contest ended in a tie, and the LDF candidate won the subsequent draw of lots.
At the same time, the UDF demonstrated that it has retained the ability to wrest seats from the Left.
It captured the ninth ward of Muttam panchayat in Kozhikode and retained a few seats that had fallen vacant after their members were elected to the Assembly.
But in several of these retained wards, the UDF’s winning margins fell sharply.
The Pallikkal division of the Mananthavady block panchayat, earlier won by Usha Vijayan by a margin of 1,055 votes, was retained by the UDF with a margin of just 331.
In Kozhikode Corporation’s Kuttichira ward, IUML candidate Farzeena Arakkal won by 436 votes, against the 2,273-vote margin secured by Fathima Thahliya previously.
The results, therefore, present a mixed picture for both fronts.
For the UDF, the loss of three seats from its previous tally and erosion in several margins provide the first electoral bruise after its Assembly victory.
For the LDF, the recovery of seven UDF-held wards offers some encouragement as it seeks to rebuild after its Assembly defeat.
The results also underline the importance of local factors, candidate selection and organisational strength in determining the outcome of closely fought local body contests.
