The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) have an uphill task in Aluva Municipality as they gear up to make possible dents in the traditional Congress stronghold.
The BJP, which had opened account in the 26-ward civic body in the last election, had set high plans in the initial lap. However, it has fielded candidates only in 16 wards. A senior mandalam leader termed it as a conscious decision not to field candidates in other 10 wards. “In those wards, the BJP does not have much hold and they are traditional Congress bastions. We did not want to end up performing poorly in those seats,” he said.
The party had struggled to find candidates in these wards as many were not ready to step in realising that the chances of even putting up an average performance were remote. The inner-party tussle had also affected the selection of candidates in some of the wards. The resignation of two booth-level leaders protesting against the district leadership for ignoring their recommendations was a reflection of this divide. However, local leaders claimed that they had high hopes in five wards this time. These included wards 4, 21, 18, 11 and 5, they said.
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The increase in the number of alliance partners in the Left Democratic Front (LDF) had prompted the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] to give away its claim in one ward. The party had fielded its candidates in 20 seats in the last election. The Communist Party of India (CPI) had to forgo a ward that it had contested last time dashing their hopes of retaining its claim in the six wards that the party had contested in the previous election. The party had stated that it had won four of the six wards that it contested in 2015 while the CPI(M) could bag only five of the 20 seats. The Nationalist Congress Party and the Kerala Congress (M) have earned one seat each as alliance partners in the LDF this time.
The 26-ward municipality council was under the Congress rule with the party winning 14 seats followed by CPI (M) — 5; CPI — 4; BJP—1 and Independents — 2.