A Red bastion that could swing

The stage is about for a stiff electoral battle within the Nedumangad municipality the place the Left Democratic Front (LDF) will look to fend off challenges posed by rival coalitions to increase its 25-year-long rule.

While a cursory look of outcomes throughout the previous couple of many years would possibly counsel the Left held sway within the native physique, a better scrutiny would spotlight a number of hard-fought contests that that they had with the United Democratic Front (UDF) when the outcomes hinged on the political stance of rebel-turned-independents.

Barring the 2015 native physique elections when the LDF had received comfortably by successful 22 out of 39 seats, not one of the different contests have been as lopsided. While the UDF did not wrest energy by one seat in a minimum of two events, the insurgent menace among the many Congress ranks bogged them down in others.

The native physique, which had 48,264 registered voters in 2015, has a 55,966-strong citizens this time. Those eligible to solid votes embrace 30,086 ladies, 25,879 males and one transgender.

Even whereas the municipality has its chairperson seat reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) Women for the primary time, the dominant presence of the Nair neighborhood within the area has significantly influenced the collection of candidates.

While it hoped to counter anti-incumbency by projecting its achievements, the LDF has been beset by issues through the seat-sharing course of. While the CPI (M) provided to allot a seat every to the LDF constituents Congress (S) and Janata Dal a lot to the opposition raised by CPI, the coalition lastly determined towards the transfer. The CPI (M) will now contest in 31 seats, whereas the CPI will subject their candidates in the remaining.

The LDF has three chairperson frontrunners – Rajika S. in Mannoorkonam, Sreekala B.K. in Valiyamala and Sreeja T. in Paramuttom. CPI (M) Nedumangad space committee secretary R. Jayadevan expressed optimism that the LDF will higher its best-ever efficiency in 2015 to win over 25 seats.

Having suffered defeats because of infighting prior to now, the UDF has projected a assured picture this time due to the somewhat easy allocation of seats. Congress Nedumangad block committee president S. Arun Kumar, who attributed their final defeat to the presence of rebels in six seats which they misplaced by slender margins, mentioned the coalition is for certain to win between 19 and 23 seats. While the Congress will contest in 30 seats, a Muslim League-backed Independent will contest in Perumala ward the place the UDF had misplaced by six votes final time.

Keeping their playing cards near their chest, the UDF has projected a veteran – three-time councillor J. Geetha from Paramuttom – and a political novice – M.R. Meera from Netta – as their chairperson-hopefuls.

Despite being dismissed as pushovers by the opposite coalitions, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has set their sights on nothing lower than capturing energy or taking part in kingmaker within the subsequent council. While the BJP determined to contest in 38 seats and spare one for Kamaraj Congress, the BDJS has been left excessive and dry.

Palippuram Vijayakumar, the BJP’s Nedumangad constituency president, mentioned the NDA is certain to profit immensely from rifts inside different coalitions that prompted many employees to change loyalties.