THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: BJP and LDF seem to have equally harnessed from the depleting vote bank of UDF to clinch quite a good number of wards from one another.
BJP provided shockers to LDF camp by eliminating some of the most expected faces in the council, mostly banking on UDF’s loss. In wards like Thirumala, PTP Nagar, Nedumcad and Chellamangalam where BJP saw success, UDF vote share shrank like nobody could have predicted.
In Thirumala, UDF polled 594 votes this time against 1,081in 2015. Happy Kumar, the LDF candidate at PTP Nagar couldn’t have done anything special since UDF votes were reduced from 1,132 in 2015 to 659.
Former education standing committee chairperson K S Sheela rode on good will and stellar performance in the council to pitch for civic body elections at Chellamangalam. BJP delayed decision on candidate to set right all equations in the ward and to dig into Congress pie. UDF vote share plummeted from 1,341in 2015 to 965 in 2020 and LDF lost a sure seat. While there was strong clamour from the local party members to field K S Sheela in the sitting seat at Chempazhanthi, LDF went for a fresh face not anticipating the combined onslaught of BJP and UDF. It was one of the few wards where UDF polled more votes than it did in 2015 and still BJP emerged victorious.
Nedumcad had issued warning signals at the onset of the campaign and S Pushpalatha of the LDF had worked harder to bypass the danger of not having a Congress candidate in her ward. However, UDF polling 74 was simply unimaginable in a corporation ward. S Pushpalatha polled more votes than she did in 2015; gathering 3,442 votes in 2020 as compared to 3,157 in 2015. Still that wasn’t enough to prevent the inevitable.
R P Shivaji’s ward Punnakamugal was sure to go to LDF however UDF votes slid from 1,435 in 2015 to 815 this year and result was BJP’s win. LDF, which managed to grab former BJP wards was helped by proper candidate selection. In wards like Valiyasala and Vattiyoorkavu, UDF had polled less than 1,000 votes in 2015 and 2020 and LDF was able to win back these wards from BJP.
At Valiyasala, an independent candidate polled more votes than UDF candidate. Pattom was one ward where UDF’s sedate presence helped LDF register a win. UDF vote share in this ward came down from 1,503 to 894 this year. CPI candidate bagged Njandoorkonam from BJP and UDF saw its votes drop from 1,667 to 998.
At Ponnumangalam, UDF increased its vote share from 742 in 2015 to 1,646 and yet victory belonged to BJP.
If BJP was the beneficiary of internal strife within UDF at Kamaleswaram in 2015, CPM was the surprise winner this time and UDF vote share dipped from 1,066 to 719.