Dealing a heavy blow to the opponents, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) retained its 15-year hold in Koyilandy municipality, having secured 27 out of the 44 seats. A woman candidate will chair the municipality this term.
The United Democratic Front (UDF) won 14 seats in the municipality improving its earlier representation of six in the last administrative body. The Bharatiya Janata Party secured three seats. From the beginning of counting itself, the LDF had been maintaining a clear lead against its opponents. It had ensured victory by winning 23 seats with the finishing of the second round of counting, the UDF lagging with 5 seats.
In the LDF, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had fielded 38 candidates. The remaining six seats were shared by its three allies. The Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) contested from two wards each. One seat each had been allocated to the Congress (S) and the Janata Dal (Secular).
The LDF was confident of repeating its earlier success during the campaign phase itself, utilizing the front’s majority in the 54,634-strong electorate. The municipality had won 14 excellence awards, including four national honours, during the term of the LDF. Accolades from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Bhoomijal Samvardhan Puraskar for efforts to conserve and protect water and soil were on top of this list.
The UDF tried to highlight the front’s failure in addressing key developmental concerns of the Municipality and was confident of a positive result with the splinter groups to their wing.
According to K. Dasan, former chairman of the municipality, it was the LDF’s committed effort in developmental causes that gifted them this victory.
Meanwhile, UDF election committee convener in Koyilandy U. Rajeevan said that they have improved the total count of votes and number of seats in the electorate from the previous term. Our candidates locked horns with people who were reining the municipality with their brutal majority, he added. According to K. Muraleedharan, it was the alliance of CPI (M) with the BJP which turned as a retort to the UDF.
