JOIN USThe severe setback suffered by the CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala’s local body elections last week may be a confirmation of the changing political mood in the state.
The defeat, which includes a near-rout in some of its citadels, comes in the wake of losses in a string of byelections and a landslide against it in last year’s Lok Sabha elections.
The LDF’s argument that it has bettered its position from the general elections is poor consolation. The other excuse that the government could not communicate its performance to the people also will not cut much ice.
The LDF is much more organised than the United Democratic Front (UDF), and the people of the state are not easily swayed by claims or blames from either side.
It is true that the LDF government and the CPM had alienated the mainstream media but the defeat cannot all be accounted for by the damage done by a hostile media.
While the LDF had swept the last local body polls, it has yielded ground to the Congress-led UDF at all levels of the three-tier local self-government system this time.
What should worry the LDF, especially the CPM, is that this includes the lowest gram panchayat bodies, where it had always maintained its dominance.
This shows an erosion of grassroots level support. The LDF, through some of its policies, actions and public statements from many leaders also estranged the major minority communities in the state. It also lost some base when parties which were constituents for a long time left it for different reasons.
The UDF gained by expanding its base with the inclusion of these parties. The CPM was done in in some places by its own rebels. The government also suffered from poor implementation of some of its schemes.
The divisiveness and factional problems within the CPM also did not help and it had a deleterious impact on the functioning and image of the government.
The setback for the LDF assumes importance in the context of the Assembly elections which are to be held in the next six months.
For long Kerala has alternated between the two fronts with every Assembly election. It will be an uphill task for the LDF to recover in the next few months the ground it has steadily lost.