Mainstream political parties have started getting down to business for the upcoming three-tier local bodies polls even as the State Election Commission is yet to notify the dates for the elections.
The parties have set in motion the process of the seat-sharing at the grassroots level with the procedures for the draw of lots for selecting the reservation wards in the district panchayats, block panchayats, grama panchayats, municipalities and corporations being completed. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the electorate will witness political parties sounding the poll bugle in a reconstructed format of digital mode electioneering.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front will officially begin the seat-sharing exercise at the State level on Saturday while the Congress-led United Democratic Front will scrutinise the reports of the sub committees at the panchayats from Thursday.
This time, the CPI(M) will have to make efforts to accommodate the new coalition partners, the Indian National League (INL) and Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD), which are eyeing for more seats.
In the previous polls held in 2015, the erstwhile Janata Dal (United) when it was with the UDF, had emerged victorious in 65 grama panchayat wards, 13 in block panchayats, four in district panchayats, 12 in municipalities and three in corporations in the State. Then the INL had a tactical understanding with the LDF in most local bodies.
Further, the CPI(M) will have to spare some seats to the Kerala Congress (M) if it finally decides to align with the Left parties, thus beginning a new electoral relationship for the Assembly polls next year.
Party sources said the Congress-led coalition would hold State-level talks by October 15. Already, leaders of the Congress and the IUML held bi-lateral talks to capture some civic bodies such as Kozhikode Corporation where the combine has been struggling for a long time to dethrone the Left coalition. The combine will also have to tackle the issue of a section of IUML clamouring for an understanding with the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI)-backed Welfare Party of India.
For the BJP-led NDA, its leaders claimed they had begun the process almost six months ago to capture some municipalities and corporations. Senior leaders have been tasked with each civic body, especially Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram Corporations.
