In Kerala local body elections, UDF edges out LDF, gets a booster for 2026 Assembly polls

Of 941 gram panchayats, where the LDF had a significant edge in the last two elections, the UDF has gained a lead in 368 gram panchayats as compared to the LDF’s 359.

The BJP-led NDA, which won from 23 gram panchayats in 2020, has surged ahead in 36 panchayats.

The BJP is also leading in the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation, where it was the main Opposition. It had been ruled by the LDF for four decades. It will be the BJP’s first-ever win in a municipal corporation in the state. However, the party is leading only in one municipality, while its tally in such bodies was two in the previous election. The NDA fielded a record number of candidates this time to increase its tally across the board.

The outcome of these elections is set to boost the morale of the Congress-led UDF in the run-up to the state Assembly elections slated for April 2026. The Congress, which has been in Opposition since 2016, has struggled to stage a comeback to the helm of government since, even though it swept the Lok Sabha polls in the state in both 2019 and 2024.

State Congress president Sunny Joseph said the UDF is set to win the local body polls, adding that “the people have rejected the LDF’s campaign.”

The voting patterns in local body elections, where grassroots-level issues and leaders play decisive roles, may be different from an Assembly poll or a Lok Sabha election. However, the outcome of these local body elections may have a crucial bearing on the prospects of the LDF, UDF and NDA as it reflected public mood across Kerala ahead of the state Assembly elections.

In the local body elections held in 2015 and 2020, the LDF had won a majority of the local bodies in the state before going on to clinch the Assembly elections in 2016 and 2021. The LDF managed this feat despite its dismal showing in the Lok Sabha elections held in 2014 and 2019. However, the prevailing trend of the current local body elections showed that the CPI(M) could not repeat its performance of 2015 and 2020.

In its campaign for the local body polls, the CPI(M) sought a mandate on the basis of nine-and-a-half-year tenure of the Pinarayi Vijayan-led government. It fought the elections on the plank of changes the party said the Vijayan government brought in the state.

Days before declaring the local body elections, the government increased the monthly welfare pension amount and introduced a new scheme for the women from the BPL families. Some of the state’s flagship interventions such as eradication of the extreme poverty, waste management, housing scheme for the poor, were implemented through the local bodies, which have brought several changes at the grassroots level.

On the political front, the CPI(M) tried to win back the Hindu vote bank which had drifted away from the LDF, raking up allegation that the Congress has alliance with the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami, a charge which the CPI(M) has been raising against the Congress after the Muslim outfit decided to drift away from the Left which it had been backing for the last three decades.

The elections were held for about 1200 local bodies, including 14 district panchayats, 152 block panchayats, 941 village panchayats in addition to 86 municipal bodies and six municipal corporations.