CPI(M) portrays Keralam local body bypoll results as LDF’s political comeback

Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] on Tuesday claimed that the results of the local body bypolls in 38 wards across 12 districts in Keralam signalled the start of a strong political comeback for the Left Democratic Front (LDF).  CPI(M) State Secretary M.V. Govindan said the results reflected the public disapproval of the 40-day-old Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government. He told a press conference that the LDF had significantly increased its vote share, and the opposition’s electoral gains were marked by a corresponding erosion of support base. “LDF gained substantially even in wards it lost to the UDF. LDF increased its seats to 18, while UDF lost three of its sitting seats”, he said. 

Mr. Govindan listed daily power cuts after a 10-year hiatus, controversies surrounding the sponsored foreign trips, the free air travel of ministers funded by anonymous entities, the rising cost of living, the ailing public health sector and what he described as the UDF’s supplanting of effective public service delivery with hollow propaganda spins as the main reasons that impelled voters to deliver a rebuke to the V.D. Satheesan government. 

He said the UDF’s lackadaisical approach to addressing the woes of settler farmers facing the threat of eviction due to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central government’s move to insulate “so-called” Ecologically Sensitive Areas from human activity and development had cost the ruling front dear in the hilly districts, which voted in UDF’s favour in the Assembly polls. 

‘Politically omnious’

For one, Mr Govindan said the CPI(M)’s Manju Sujith wrested the Thrikkodithanam division of the Kottayam district panchayat from the UDF by a margin of 2,140 votes. “The loss of traditional votes in the division, which was left vacant after Congress’s Vinu Jacob was elected to the Assembly, is politically ominous for the UDF”, he said. 

Mr Govindan said the results did not bode well for the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), which he claimed was losing its traditional voters to the LDF. “Notably, IUML scraped through to a nominal victory in the Kuttichara ward in Kozhikode Corporation, vacated by IUML legislator Fathima Tahaliya. (Ms. Tahaliya had defeated LDF convenor T.P. Ramakrishnan in Perambra). 

Mr. Govindan alleged an “overt” Congress-BJP understanding, which he claimed was evident in the UDF’s win in the Kallara district panchayat division in Thiruvananthapuram. “In the 2025 local body polls, BJP had garnered 10,089 votes. In the by-election, BJP’s vote share dwindled to 5,028 votes, while the UDF gained an estimated 5,000 votes. Yet, the LDF increased its vote share significantly in the battleground division”, he said. 

Mr. Govindan said voters have accepted the CPI(M) internal rectification process and given the LDF confidence to correct past mistakes and forge ahead by championing working-class issues. He said the bypoll results have put a strong wind in the LDF’s sails.