Kerala Assembly Elections | Votes for tackling the coronavirus

In 2020, Kerala was appreciated throughout the world for the method through which it handled the pandemic. The nationwide lockdown that was imposed in March 2020 left the day by day wage labourers most weak. To sort out the meals disaster, the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Front authorities in the State distributed meals kits containing important foodgrains and different gadgets to all ration card holders in the State and likewise arrange neighborhood kitchens throughout all panchayats. In the Lokniti-CSDS post-poll survey, 94% of the respondents acknowledged that they’d availed themselves of the facility of meals kits at the very least as soon as. Among them, most had been happy with the equipment with solely 11% expressing some component of dissatisfaction (Table 1).

Even when the voters had been requested to fee the general steps taken by the State authorities to take care of COVID-19 over the final one yr, 72% rated the steps nearly as good. Another 21% rated the steps as common with solely a small chunk (5%) in accordance a foul ranking.

These kits together with different initiatives earned large goodwill for the authorities and likewise translated into votes for the Left alliance. Close to 6 of 10 voters who had rated the steps taken by the authorities nearly as good voted for the get together (57%). An identical sample was additionally seen amongst those that had availed themselves of the equipment and had been happy with it (Table 2).

The information additionally present that two-thirds (67%) of the respondents acknowledged that at the very least considered one of their family members is working in the Gulf. Of them, 92% mentioned that their members of the family ship a reimbursement dwelling. The pandemic triggered an enormous reverse migration of employees from the Gulf again to Kerala. The LDF authorities made varied preparations and supplied monetary help to those that couldn’t return overseas as a result of the lockdown. The information present {that a} majority of those Gulf households had been tilted in direction of the UDF of their voting sample as they’re principally Muslim households. However, 4 in each 10 of those households wished to provide the LDF one other probability.

The work executed by the Left authorities throughout the pandemic was outstanding not solely on paper, but additionally in follow as a majority of the voters had availed themselves of the advantages of the authorities’s schemes. This work absolutely translated into the LDF gaining folks’s belief.

Vibha Attri is Research Associate, Lokniti-CSDS