The increase in the total voting percentage in the Koyilandy municipality has given the United Democratic Front (UDF), which has been sitting in the opposition bench of the local body for the last two decades, hope of turning the table on the LDF this time around when the result of the local bodies’ election come out on Saturday.
From the last year’s tally of 78.19 per cent, Koyilandy has witnessed a swell in the total votes polled in the municipal election to reach 82.55 per cent this time around.
According to senior leader of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and former councillor V.P. Ibrahim Kutty, the increase in the voting percentage will definitely be in favour of the UDF.
“We hope to get at least 25 of the total 44 seats in the municipality this time and come to power after 20 years,” he said. Last time the front had only 14 seats in the council.
Leaders of the LDF, however, refuted this stand and maintained that the front would return to power without any doubt. “The marginal increase in the voting percentage was not going to affect the prospects of the front in the municipality in any way,” said T.K. Chandran, CPI(M) leader and former vice chairman of the council. “We, in fact, are set to increase our tally this time to 32 from the 27 last time,” he said.
Meanwhile, the voting percentage in the Vadakara municipality, has come down marginally to 80 per cent this time from the 81.27 per cent last time.
A strong anti-incumbency sentiment and the presence of the Revolutionary Marxist Party were posing a serious threat to the Left front in Vadakara municipality, which was being ruled by the LDF for the last several decades.
The addition of five more new municipalities — Ramanattukara, Feroke, Mukkam, Koduvally and Payyoli — is all set to make changes on the power table of the district as all these local bodies, when they were panchayats, had a different political history of shifting loyalties to different fronts from time to time.
