Elections to 8,116 wards in 451 local bodies across Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad and Wayanad districts will be held in the second phase of local body polls in Kerala on Thursday.
The electorate comprises 98,57,208 voters, including 51,28,361 women, 47,28,489 men, 93 transgenders and 265 NRI voters. First-time voters are 57,895. A total of 473 polling booths among the 12,643 booths have been identified as sensitive and equipped with web cast facility.
As many as 63,187 officials will be on polling duty. Elections to ward no. 37 of Kalamassery municipality and 47 of Thrissur Corporation have been postponed following the death of candidates. A communication from the State Election Commission said that voters testing positive between 3 p.m. on December 9 and till the time the polling ends on December 10 may cast their votes at their respective polling booths with a certificate from the designated health officer.
Kochi and Thrissur Corporations going to the polls on Thursday are keenly watched State-wide as the Left front, with an array of young candidates, is seeking to wrest Kochi from the UDF after a gap of a decade while the NDA, which won six wards in Thrissur Corporation in 2015, has fielded BJP spokesperson B. Gopalakrishnan as its Mayor candidate hoping to cruise to a win here.
Thrissur district stood with the LDF in the 2015 local body polls, giving it 88 of the 111 local bodies. As the epicentre of the Life Mission project controversy, the district witnessed high voltage campaigning this time around, making predictions impossible.
In Ernakulam, traditionally a UDF stronghold, the Left had managed to clinch over a half of the 82 grama panchayats and eight of the 13 municipalities in 2015. The district panchayat and most block panchayats, however, went with the UDF. Both alliances are trying to better their show while the BJP faces rebel menace in quite a few places. Kizhakkambalam panchayat in Ernakulam where the corporate-backed Twenty20 pipped all major fronts is in focus in the district, as it has fielded candidates from nearby local bodies too. That apart, there are 'independent outfits' such as Twenty20 seeking the mandate from a number of municipalities.
Hot on the heels of a major shake-up in the UDF and the LDF following a split in the Kerala Congress (M), the fronts were on a full throttled offensive against each other till the last minute of electioneering in Kottayam district. While the UDF and the NDA brought in a range of issues, including gold smuggling case, the LDF sought to counter this with the development initiatives undertaken by the State government.
The Left also accused the UDF and the BJP of striking a secret pact for vote-trading.
In Palakkad municipality, the BJP is fighting hard for a second term in power, even as the UDF is trying to retain the four municipalities held by them, while the Left is hoping to better its standing from just two municipalities. The Left, which won nearly 90% of the grama panchayats in 2015, is seeking to also win the mandate of the urban voters.
Among the districts going to polls on Thursday, Wayanad has the least number of voters with 6,25,455.
