The Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) has swept the election to the Mattannur municipal council by winning 28 of the 35 wards.
While the results, announced after counting the votes at Mattannur here on Thursday morning, reaffirmed the LDF's electoral dominance in the municipality, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) suffered reversal of fortunes in the election.
The number of seats it won in the election is seven, just half the seats it secured in the 2012 election to the then 34-seat council. The LDF improved its tally from 20 seats to 28 as it has continued its winning streak in the municipality for the fifth time in succession since upgrading Mattannur into a municipality.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which fielded its candidates in 32 wards, failed to open its account in the municipality. The BJP is in second position in nine seats, in eight of which the UDF was pushed to the third slot. In the LDF, the CPI(M)'s tally is 23 seats, CPI one and LDF-backed Independents 4. The Congress won four and the Indian Union Muslim League won three seats in the council.
The CPI(M) district secretariat in a statement said the BJP's vote share in the municipality dropped by 847 votes from the votes it polled in the area in the last Assembly election.
It also alleged that the BJP could manage to be in the second position in some wards because of the erosion of Congress votes. The defeat of IUML candidates in some of the traditional IUML strongholds was an indication that Muslims had started recognising the relevance of the LDF. Jubilant LDF workers staged a victory march at Mattannur after the results were announced.