Battle for Kerala’s local bodies begins

The fight for Kerala’s local bodies has begun in earnest with the State Election Commission (SEC) on Friday issuing the notification for local body elections to be held in December.

Led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] Left Democratic Front (LDF) hopes for 2020 restart; The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) are trying to turn the tide by achieving upset victories, especially in key corporations and municipalities, while dominating all levels of local bodies.

In the 2020 elections, LDF had a clear upper hand in district panchayats, Corporations, grama and block panchayats and municipalities. It currently holds five of the six Corporations, 44 of the 87 municipalities (including Mattannur municipality in Kannur, where elections are being held in 2022), more than 500 of the 941 grama panchayats, more than 100 of the 152 block panchayats and 11 of the 14 district panchayats.

UDF has a Corporation called Kannur in addition to 41 municipalities, over 300 grama panchayats, over 35 block panchayats and three district panchayats. The NDA controls two municipalities, Palakkad and Pandalam, and 11 grama panchayats.

In companies

Tough battles are expected in urban local bodies, including LDF-ruled Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur Corporations. While the BJP was the main Opposition in Thiruvananthapuram, in Thrissur Corporation the LDF captured power with the support of an Independent candidate, a Congress rebel who became the Mayor.

The poll battles are expected to be particularly fierce this time as the local body elections are also seen as the beginning of the 2026 State Legislative Assembly elections.

While LDF campaigns will predictably focus on the Pinarayi Vijayan government’s achievements on the development and welfare fronts, the UDF is expected to highlight allegations of corruption in the administration. Both the UDF and the NDA are expected to raise the gold ‘theft’ controversy linked to the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple as a major issue in their respective campaigns. The BJP hopes to make a difference by highlighting the Narendra Modi government’s development agenda at the national level and its promise of rapid development in Kerala.

Kerala, on the other hand, is moving into polling booths after a massive containment exercise that re-routed 1,200 local body wards, increasing their numbers from 21,900 to 23,612. Of these, elections will be held in 23,576 neighborhoods in December 2025, as the five-year term of 36 neighborhoods of Mattannur municipality will end only in September 2027.

colorful history

Local body elections in Kerala have a colorful history. The first election under the Travancore-Cochin Panchayat Act (1950) was held in 1953. Important years for local body elections include 1957, when an Administrative Reforms Committee (ARC) was constituted, with the Prime Minister as Chairman, and 1960, when the Panchayat Act was enacted, which divided the Local Bodies department into the Panchayat department and the Municipal department.

The SEC observed that the ARC “proposed measures for centralization of power at various levels and methods for democratization of government bodies at various levels with a view to ensuring the effective participation of local self-government institutions in governance.”

The second election was held in 1963 but thereafter voters in Kerala had to wait a long time of 16 years for the next election. On 10 February 1978, the Assembly witnessed a heated debate over the repeated postponement of local elections. MV Raghavan, then still with the CPI(M), submitted a brief resolution to the Assembly on behalf of PR Sivan: “The Assembly requests the government to immediately hold the postponed panachayat-municipal-Corporation elections.” The third elections were finally held in 1979, followed by the fourth election in 1988.

The 2025 edition will be the seventh after the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments of 1992 and the enactment of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act and the Kerala Municipalities Act, 1994. The SEC was established on December 3, 1993. The first elections under the new laws were held in 1995 and have been held every five years without a break since then, with the last one in 1995. Three phases of exercise in 2020 under strict COVD-19 protocols.