: The resounding success of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led LDF in the three-tier local body polls has been evenly spread across urban and rural belts in the district.
The most notable feature was that the LDF bucked the trend of mounting anti-incumbency during the fag end of the campaign to retain the Kozhikode Corporation, which it has been ruling for a record 40 years. The CPI (M) alone secured a majority in the 75-member council by bagging 48 seats.
In the previous elections, the Left coalition scraped through by winning seven seats more than the Congress-led United Democratic Front. Then it was attributed to the 17 out of the 20 seats the front won from the erstwhile Elathur, Beypore and Nallalam- Cheruvannur grama pancahayts that had been merged with the civic body.
This time, however, the coalition not only had its seats reduced to 14 from these regions, but had to concede three seats to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
But the party bounced back in the remaining 55 seats where it had lost ground to the Congress-Indian Union Muslim League-Janata Dal (United) combine. Incidentally, the CPI (M) lost the prestigious battle in the Malaparamba ward where the party’s sitting councillor and firebrand DYFI leader K. Sini was in the fray.
Likewise, the LDF retained Vadakara and Koyilandy and won the newly formed Mukkom and Ramanattukara municipalities. The fate of Feroke municipality hangs in the balance.
The LDF has won 43 out of the 70 grama panchayats in the district. It has been able to capture several grama panchayats such as Atholi, which it had lost to the UDF last time. Uncertainty still prevails over eight grama panchayats. In the 2010 elections, the LDF had won 34 out of the 75 grama panchayats.
Similarly it has been able to retain eight out of the 12 grama panchayats in spite of the delimitation. It emerged victorious in Tooneri, Kunnammal, Meladi, Perambra, Balussery, Panthalayani, Chelannur and Kozhikode while the UDF won the Vadakara, Thodannur, Koduvally and Kunnamangalam block panchayats.
In the same way, the LDF captured some of the seats in the 27-member district panchayat though the contours have been redrawn. It won 16 seats. Last time it secured a majority by a whisker of one seat than its rival UDF.
LDF bounced back in 55 seats
It won Mukkon, Ramanattukara municipalities
