UDF fails to impress at Kerala polls

The ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front on Tuesday suffered a severe setback in the local body polls in Kerala with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) controlled Left Democratic Front winning all the five city corporations and surging ahead in a majority of municipalities.

The LDF is also pressing ahead in 12 out of 14 district panchayats where the counting is in progress alongwith village and block panchayats. The LDF, which has tied up with Karunakaran-led Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran), retained power in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kochi and Kozhikode corporations and wrested the Thrissur Corporation from the UDF.

In Thiruvananthapuram, the LDF-DIC (K) tie-up lifted 73 seats in the 86-member council, releagating the UDF to 10 seats and the remaining three seats won by indedependents, one of them backed by Bharatiya Janata Party.

Of the 52 municipalites, LDF is comfortably positioned in 38 urban bodies and the UDF in 13. The only districts where the UDF could contain the LDF surge to a certain extent was in the Muslim League stronghold Malappuram.

In Kottayam, the UDF is slightly ahead of the LDF. In an upset in Palakkad municiaplity, BJP emerged as the key player winning 17 seats getting evenly matched with the LDF and the UDF. The LDF is also maintaining its lead in village and block panchayats from where results have begun to pour in.