Kerala local body bye-polls: LDF wins 22 seats, UDF 17, BJP 5

While the LDF said this was a response to those who ridiculed the Left for their Lok Sabha polls defeat, Congress said that the anti-incumbency factor still persists.

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In a victory that could boost the morale of the ruling Left Democratic Front as well as that of the Left activists, the LDF has won 22 out of the total 44 local body seats for which bye-elections were held on Friday.

The UDF has won 17 seats, and the BJP has won five seats.

The elections were held for 35 wards in gram panchayats, four wards in block panchayats, and five wards in municipalities in 13 districts of the state.

In Thiruvananthapuram, the bye-elections were conducted for seven wards. LDF won four seats.

In Kollam, the bye-elections were held for four wards, and the LDF won three seats. UDF won one.

In Pathanamthitta, LDF won the lone seat where bye-election was held.

The LDF candidates won in three wards in Alappuzha, while the BJP and the UDF secured one seat each.

In Idukki, out of the five local body seats that went to bye-poll, LDF won three, and UDF and BJP won one each.

In Ernakulam, both LDF and UDF secured one seat each.

UDF won in four seats in Kottayam, while LDF got two seats. Both fronts won one seat each in Ernakulam.

Congress candidates won in all the four seats for which the bye-elections were held in Thrissur. The LDF and the BJP won one seat each in Palakkad district.

In Malappuram, UDF won in three seats and the LDF secured two.

CPI(M) candidates won in the sole seat in both Kozhikode and Wayanad.

In Kannur, a BJP candidate won the one seat.

CPI(M) Secretariat has congratulated the voters for voting for the Left candidates.

"The LDF has won the Mandad seat in Wayanad where the UDF had won with a record majority in the Lok Sabha elections. In this bye-election, the seat has been secured from the UDF with a majority of 127 votes. In ward one of Angadi Panchayat in Pathanamthitta district, where Sabarimala temple is located, the LDF secured a sitting seat of the UDF with a majority of 38 votes. The BJP got only nine votes in the ward. In all the wards for which the bye-polls were conducted the LDF's vote share has increased from that of the LS elections. The result is a response to those who claim that the Left had been crippled due to the defeat in the Lok Sabha polls," the Secretariat said in a statement.

LDF had faced a stunning defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, and was reduced to only one seat. The Congress-led UDF had won the rest 19 seats.

Meanwhile, KPCC President Mullappally Ramachandran has said that what is reflected in the result is anti-incumbency factor.

"The UDF has secured nine sitting seats of the LDF, and the number of LDF seats has reduced from 23 to 22 this bye-election which implies the anti-incumbency factor from the Lok Sabha polls still persists," he said in a statement.

Among the five seats the BJP won in the bye-election, four were the party's sitting seats while one was that of the Congress.

BJP state President PS Sreedharan Pillai claimed that it is a glorious victory for the party. "The most prominent is the victory in ward 29 of Cherthala municipality, where the ancestral home of Congress' senior leader AK Antony is. This was a sitting seat of the Congress. BJP candidate also retained the Kizhake Palayad ward in Dharamadam in Kannur which is a stronghold of the CPI(M)," Sreedharan Pillai said.