Having ruled the Attingal municipality in all terms except one since 1979, the Left Democratic Front (LDF)’s hold here is somewhat formidable.
In the 31-member municipal council, the LDF occupies 22 seats with the United Democratic Front (UDF) taking five and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) four.
Municipal chairman M. Pradeep believes that the LDF’s record over the past 15 years, and especially in the current term, will keep it in good stead in the upcoming local body polls.
“We have fulfilled all the promises that we had given to the people when we came to power five years ago. For the past 14 years, we have been winning the Pollution Control Board’s award for best waste management, not to forget the award for the best municipality multiple times from the State government. We were able to provide land to all scheduled caste families in the municipality. The swimming training programme for school students was also highly successful. In the Attingal taluk hospital, free dialysis is now being provided to poor patients. The Animal Birth Control programme has also been successfully implemented,” says Mr. Pradeep.
M. Anilkumar, the UDF’s leader in the council, however begs to differ. In his opinion, the sorry state of the roads in the municipality should be a reason for the voters to have a rethink.
“In almost all the wards, one can find that the interior roads are in disrepair. The main road too have been dug up at many places and road accidents have been increasing. A building that the UDF had constructed during its tenure in 2000-05 for Kudumbashree members to make use of to carry out business activities, is now lying unused. The awards for waste management were won just by showing the few areas that have remained clean. We are confident that with Adoor Prakash MP’s constant presence and work in the constituency, we will be able to make major gains this time,” says Mr. Anilkumar.
For the BJP, the lead that it secured in several wards in the Parliamentary elections last year is a source of confidence. Last time around, it had increased its share from two seats to four seats. S. Santosh, the BJP leader in the council, says that the LDF is resting on the laurels of the past and has failed to come up with innovative projects in the current tenure.
“They have been unable to implement any project in industries or other sectors to generate revenue. They have just continued with the ongoing projects. As far as waste management is concerned, they have just ensured the regular upkeep of the plant and follow-up for the project, but there has been no new projects,” says Mr. Santosh.
