UDF loses sitting wards in Keralam's first local body bypolls since taking power

Keralam’s ruling Congress-led UDF won 18 of the 38 local body wards that went to bypolls on Monday, but lost some seats it had previously held in its first electoral test since coming to power four months ago.

The CPI(M)-led LDF won 16 wards, while three went to independents. The NDA won one ward through its ally Twenty20, according to State Election Commission figures.

Turnout was 58.81 per cent, with Kannur recording the highest turnout at 84.55 per cent and Kottayam the lowest at 54.24 per cent.

The UDF’s losses included two wards in the Chirayinkeezhu Assembly constituency, represented by Congress MLA Ramya Haridas.

Reports have linked the local result to tensions within the Congress there, including a recent altercation involving Haridas and party leaders, though the effect of that dispute on voting cannot be established from the result alone.

The UDF won every ward that went to a bypoll in Pathanamthitta. In Ernakulam, a Congress stronghold, it won two of the four wards contested. The UDF also retained the Pallikal division in Wayanad’s Mananthavady and the Kuttichira ward in Kozhikode.

However, the Congress-led alliance winning margins in both were down to a few hundred votes, compared with more than 1,000 in the previous contests for those seats.

On the other hand, the LDF took two of the three wards in Kottayam and four of the seven in Palakkad.

The bypolls were held four months after the UDF won the Assembly election and VD Satheesan became chief minister. The LDF has since attacked his government over power cuts, delays in flood relief, shortages of medicines in government hospitals and ministers’ foreign trips.

The results give the Opposition grounds to question the UDF’s early performance, although voting in 38 local wards cannot by itself establish why support changed or predict a statewide result.- Ends