Local tidings with assembly elections due in summer kerala local body polls give ldf the upper hand

Local tidings with assembly elections due in summer kerala local body polls give ldf the upper hand

LDF’s victory in Kerala local body elections spells huge relief to CPM and chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Both were on the defensive since late July, when a gold smuggling racket linked to a senior IAS officer in the CM’s office was unearthed. Congress and BJP have spent the subsequent months levelling a series of allegations against Vijayan. It robbed some of the sheen acquired through his surefooted response to the 2017 and 2018 floods, Nipah outbreak and the fiscally liberal response to the Covid pandemic. But it wasn’t enough to undermine the LDF.

Meanwhile, CPM also had to ease out state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan over narcotics and benami allegations against his son. With central agencies hot on the trail and CPM’s two bigwigs on the backfoot, the government appeared to be buckling. But the party cadre effectively countered the graft allegations, incessantly reminding voters of the significant hike in social security pensions benefitting around 50 lakh people and the comprehensive grocery kits since March to all households.

UDF had won 19 of the state’s 20 Lok Sabha seats last year benefitting from the Sabarimala issue, Rahul Gandhi’s Wayanad foray and CPM’s national irrelevance. Wednesday’s reversal ahead of assembly elections in 2021 warns Congress against vesting its hopes in Kerala’s tradition of voting out incumbents. Congress’s immediate challenge is to counter CPM’s welfarist largesse and shore up its central Travancore bastions, weakened by two Christian denominations cosying up to LDF. BJP’s claims of making a big splash in Kerala also stand belied. Its surge has been easier in states where the opposition, specifically Congress, is weak. But in Kerala, the two fronts aren’t letting the votes or netas slip away easily. On a different note, local body elections becoming barometers of political performance is a positive development. It incentivises the decentralisation of governance.