Though the Left Democratic Front (LDF) retained power in the Palakkad district panchayat, in majority of the block panchayats and grama panchayats in the Chittur Assembly constituency, where the CPI(M) was all out to “teach a lesson” to the Socialist Janata (Democratic) led by M.P. Veerendrakumar who left the front to join the United Democratic Front (UDF), the LDF could not win any grama panchayats, except the newly added Peruvambu and Polpully.
In Perumatty, Vadakarapathy, Eruthiampathy, Vadavannur and Kozhinjampara grama panchayats the LDF could not win a single seat. However, in Pattancherry it won one seat.
In Perumatty, the SJD came to power alone by winning 18 seats out of the total 22. Its ally the Congress won four seats. So there is no Opposition in Perumatty grama panchayat for the UDF. In the last election, the CPI(M) had three seats in Perumatty.
The party also lost its sitting grama panchayats of Nalleppully and Elappully. Elappully was a Model Panchayat that had won national and State awards for its dairy development projects.
The party also lost another Model Panchayat, Kannadi, owing to the rebel problem where it implemented various model projects like Kannadi fresh milk scheme that caught national attention.
In the lone municipality of Chittur taluk, the Chitthur-Thathamangalam municipality, the LDF could win just three seats as against the 26 of the UDF.
In the Malampuzha grama panchayat also the CPI(M) faced reverses though it managed to retain power. The LDF tally came down to seven from the 10 of last election.
But in the adjacent Marutharode grama panchayat the LDF could stop the UDF wave and retained power though their outgoing panchayat president was defeated. In this panchayat the UDF could win only one seat.
In a shocking development in the labour-dominated Pudussery grama panchayat of Kanjikode industrial belt, the CPI(M) lost power to the UDF.
Malampuzha, Marutharode and Pudussery grama panchayats are part of the Malampuzha Assembly constituency represented by Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan in the Assembly and considered as the party fortress in the district.
In the Elappully Petta ward of Elappully grama panchayat, from where the CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat hailed, the party lost the election. They could not manage majority to retain power in the grama panchayat this time.
The UDF could not completely utilise the wave blowing across the State in their favour because of their lack of unity and leadership quality at the district level. The organisational weakness of the Congress and the Muslim League is the main factor that enabled the LDF to retain power in the district panchayat and the majority of the block and grama panchayats in the district, according to political observers here.
