All three political fronts expect improved showing in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation

A day ahead of the declaration of the local body polls results, the three major fronts are confident of improving upon their performance compared to the previous years. With the United Democratic Front (UDF), which is now holding just 10 out of the 100 wards in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, making a bigger push this time around, the possibilities of even a hung verdict is being talked about.

Sources from the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) appeared confident of winning more than the 51 wards that the front won last time. Most of the LDF leaders said that the front is sure of 38-40 wards, while there are 10-15 more wards where it has chances of winning comfortably.

Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is roiled by the allegations that surfaced following the suspected suicide of its councillor and another party worker, is confident that it could overcome the negative perception through its calculated ground-level campaign, which used inventive ideas including QR coded polling slips for voters. But the controversy over its Sathamangalam ward candidate R. Sreelekha sharing a fake opinion poll on her social media page on polling day could pose a problem for the front in one of its prestigious wards, as the State Election Commission has taken a serious view of the issue.

The UDF, which fielded former MLA K.S. Sabarinadhan and District Congress Committee secretary M.S. Anilkumar to make clear its intent, is expected to improve its standing this time. But, capturing power at the corporation could still be a tall order.

Rebels, delimitation

All three fronts have faced challenges from rebel candidates in a few seats. It remains to be seen how much damage these candidates could cause to the major candidates. The delimitation has also played spoilsport to some extent, according to ground-level party workers as they could not trace some families. In several wards, there were instances of family members ending up having votes in different wards after delimitation.

For the BJP, which has been making a major push for power in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation over the past decade, the local body election result could also be a pointer to how the choices would play out in the assembly elections set to take place a few months later.