It’s LDF all the way in Kerala civic elections

K Karunakaran’s Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran), which aligned itself with the LDF, did not fare well in constituencies where LDF constituents CPI and RSP, keen to distance themselves from Karunakaran, had a say.

Although Pinarayi Vijayan said it helped to have an informal truck with Karunakaran’s outfit, another CPM heavyweight and politburo member V S Achuthanandan said the Left had given a worse drubbing to the UDF in the Lok Sabha polls last year when Karunakaran was with the Congress.

For the first time, the BJP became the single largest party in a local body. It bagged 17 seats in Palakkad municipality, leaving the UDF and LDF with 16 each. The BJP, incidentally, did not field candidates on many seats where the UDF had a significant strength. The BJP also opened accounts in many places where it had no strength earlier, like Ponnani, of Muslim-dominated Malappuram.

The LDF and the UDF had been vying to accuse each other of covert ties with the BJP. The BJP named 32 places in Kerala where it claimed to have electoral ties with both the fronts. BJP state chief P S Sreedharan Pillai said nine district Congress chiefs had approached his party for help and dared the KPCC president to request him to name them.

“The only gain that the UDF had this poll was helping the BJP gain some seats,” Pinarayi Vijayan said. He indicated that this would be one of the main issues in the Assembly polls. He claimed that even the Muslim League voted for the BJP in certain pockets to defeat the LDF.

The Muslim League had a face-saving victory in Manjeri municipality, its stronghold for decades. The UDF, however, let go another Muslim League bastion, Ponnani, to the LDF, which also retained Perinthalmanna municipality. The LDF is poised evenly with the UDF in another League bastion, Tirur.