Thiruvananthapuram: Ruling Congress led UDF in Kerala was trailing CPI(M) headed LDF in early trends as counting was taken up today in the civic election, seen as a semi-final to 2016 assembly polls.
Of the 86 municipalities, LDF has emerged front runner in 43, closely followed by UDF in 42 and others in 1. In the 941 gram panchayats, LDF is leading in 368, UDF in 294, BJP 30 and others in 22. Out of the 14 district panchayats, LDF is leading in eight and UDF in six, while out of 152 block panchayats LDF is leading in 89 and UDF 52.
It is a very crucial election for the CPI-M led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led UDF. The election will also give the answer if the BJP be able to make inroads into the state.
During civic polls it’s the local issues like garbage disposal, stray dog menace, development of roads that are in the forefront and become major campaign topics. But in Kerala apart from local issues, national issues like the Dadri lynching, "beef raid" at Kerala house, Delhi and the vigilance court order against state Finance Minister KM Mani are being widely discussed and expected to have impacted the elections.
For the LDF the elections are more like a do or die situation. This election result will be important nationally as Kerala is still one place that supports the Left and they do not want to lose their ground. There have been several corruption charges against the UDF government but the LDF was not able to convert it to election victories during by-elections.
BJP’S new found relationship with SNDP, the organisation of the Hindu Ezhava community, a strong base of the Left, may also add to their trouble. The Left leaders led by Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan is moving in a co-ordinated way and taking on the opponents.
Left leaders are confident of the election victory, and claim the people are fed up with the corruption of the UDF government. They also say that though leaders of the SNDP are with BJP, the community is with the Left.
This is a great challenge for UDF and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Even after the vigilance court ordered further investigation in the bar bribe scam, the CM had maintained that there was no need for his finance minister to resign.
An election win will prove that though the opposition has been raising several corruption charges, it’s not having an effect on the people. Even when Congress saw a debacle nationally, UDF won 12 out of the 20 seats from Kerala. Congress under Chandy has also not lost a single by-election since the government came to power in 2011.
Elections to civic polls were held in two phases on November 2 and 5. A total of 75,549 candidates contested for the 21 905 seats.
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