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Kerala: The Left has an advantage | HT Editorial
Facing allegations of gold and drug smuggling, it kept the focus firmly on its handling of the 2018 floods and the Covid-19 pandemic
The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF)’s impressive showing in the Kerala local body elections and the disastrous performance of the United Democratic Front (UDF) led by the Congress sets the stage for the assembly polls in the state next year. The LDF has taken 516 gram panchayats to the UDF’s 374 and 10 district panchayats to the UDF’s four. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to make much headway, though it did notch up a few gains in the gram panchayats.
Several factors worked to shore up the Pinarayi Vijayan government. Facing allegations of gold and drug smuggling, it kept the focus firmly on its handling of the 2018 floods and the Covid-19 pandemic. It stitched up an advantageous alliance with the Kerala Congress (Mani), a regionally powerful party which has considerable influence in the Christian heartland. The LDF has made major inroads into the UDF’s traditional votebanks, which suggests that the UDF’s negative brand of politics has not worked. The government gave local bodies a substantial role in both health and education which has paid off now.
The Congress was not able to project any achievement and its ill-thought-out deal with the Jamaat-e-Islami’s Welfare Party of India gave the LDF a handle to accuse it of aligning with communal forces. While the BJP did not fare as well as it had hoped, it has been able to capitalise on the Sabrimala controversy to make some gains in areas where the issue got most traction. But this is nowhere enough to pose a real challenge a resurgent LDF in the Assembly elections. The biggest loser, however, is the Congress which seems unable to even defend what were once its strongholds in Kerala.
