Kerala local body polls: Strong showing in local polls widens UDF’s path to victory in 2026 Assembly elections, says Satheesan

Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan said the United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition’s strong showing in the local body election had widened its path to victory in the Assembly elections in 2026. 

He said the UDF’s emergence as a big tent accommodating varied social groups catalysed the coalition’s “best performance since the first elections for local bodies in 1995”. 

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The UDF wrested 500 panchayats, 77 block panchayats, seven district panchayats, and five corporations from the ruling Left Democratic Front (UDF).

At the same time, the UDF stymied the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance ascendancy in key local bodies, reasserting its political identity as the sole and credible bulwark against Hindu majoratarian forces in Kerala. 

Mr. Satheesan attributed the NDA’s ascendancy in the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation to the LDF’s flawed policy of courting Hindu majoratarian forces after the ruling front’s overtures to minority communities failed dismally in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. 

He said the LDF’s attempt to diminish the UDF through voter suppression, brazen electoral boundary manipulation, demonising minorities, promoting religious majoritarianism and tactical ward-level alliances with the NDA backfired. 

Mr. Satheesan said the Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple gold theft under the LDF’s watch resonated strongly among voters, propelling the UDF’s victory. “The crime epitomised the government’s entrenched corruption, nepotism and barely concealed contempt for the faith of people in their respective religions. The NDA bore the political cost for “slinking away” from the issue,” he said. The BJP backtracked on the issue to maintain the LDF-NDA shared aim of diminishing secular forces led by the Congress. 

Mr. Satheesan said CPI(M) leader M.M. Mani’s statement that social welfare beneficiaries had shown “ingratitude” by forsaking their “paymasters” was emblematic of the LDF’s disdain for the electorate. “CPI(M) leadership has no grace in victory or defeat,” he said. Mr. Satheesan reiterated his promise to go into political self-exile if the UDF did not ascend to power in the 2026 Assembly elections.