UDF breaches LDF citadels in Kozhikode, NDA makes gains in urban areas

The United Democratic Front (UDF) breached many of the citadels of the Left Democratic Front (LDF), and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) made impressive gains in the urban areas, when results of the local body polls in Kozhikode district were declared on Saturday.

Though the LDF just managed to retain power in the 76-member Kozhikode Corporation council and won eight of the 12 block panchayats, it narrowly lost the district panchayat and surrendered its supremacy in grama panchayats to the UDF. In the municipalities, the 2020 scenario was repeated when the LDF was voted to power in Mukkom, Koyilandy, and Vadakara and the UDF emerged victorious in Ramanattukara, Feroke, Payyoli and Koduvally.

In the 28-member district panchayat, the LDF won 13 divisions and the UDF 14. The Azhiyur division has gone to the Revolutionary Marxist Party, which had formed an alliance with the UDF for the elections. In the block panchayats, the UDF won two divisions and there is a tie in two others. The UDF also surged ahead in 39 grama panchayats while the LDF could win only 27. There is a tie in four other panchayats.

UDF candidates K.C. Shobhita (Malaparamba) and Soufiya (Vellayil) celebrating their victory in the Kozhikode Corporation polls on Saturday.
| Photo Credit:
K. Ragesh

Five years ago, the LDF had managed to win both the Kozhikode Corporation (51 seats in the 75-member council) and the district panchayat (18 seats in the 27-member council) with a two-third majority. The Left parties had also swept 10 of the 12 block panchayats and 43 of the 70 grama panchayats.

However, the LDF could not continue its dream run this time in the district. In the Kozhikode Corporation, where the Left parties had been in power for around five decades, it just managed to scrape through with 34 seats. The UDF improved its performance by bagging 26 seats and the NDA almost doubled its tally to 13 seats. Others have won three seats. Notable among those who lost were C.P. Musafar Ahmed, the LDF’s mayoral candidate and incumbent Deputy Mayor, and P.M. Niyas, the UDF’s Mayoral candidate, LDF councillors M.C. Anil Kumar and C. Rekha, and former councillor T. Sujan.

An anti-incumbency feeling against the State government and perceived communal undercurrents are reported to be among the reasons for the LDF’s bad show in some of its traditional strongholds in the district.

Sreeja C. Nair, NDA candidate in Mavoor Road ward of the Kozhikode Corporation, celebrating her victory with party workers in Kozhikode on Saturday.
| Photo Credit:
K. Ragesh

The UDF and the BJP are also learnt to have benefited from their campaigning focussed on the Sabarimala gold theft case. However, the LDF raking up the UDF’s “tactical tie-up” with the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind-backed Welfare Party of India (WPI) and the sexual misconduct charges against Rahul Mamkootathil do not seem to have made much of an impact. Meanwhile, the WPI won four seats on its own in the Mukkom municipality.