Bihar election results likely to echo through Kerala local body polls campaign

Thiruvananthapuram: The Bihar assembly election results have given a morale boost to the BJP in Kerala as the campaigning for the local body polls in the state are already on and the party under the new leadership of technocrat turned politician Rajeev Chandrasekhar is making all out efforts to improve its performance.

The local body polls assume much political significance as the Assembly polls will soon follow and the trend in the local body polls will have its influence on the assembly polls too.

While the BJP Kerala leaders celebrated the Bihar victory by distributing sweets and expressing confidence of organising similar celebrations when the local body poll results come, a pall of gloom was prevailed in the Congress and CPM camps.

"The Bihar election outcome will help the BJP in Kerala strengthen its narrative that Congress is becoming irrelevant at national and regional levels. Hence it could influence voters who are in a double mind of changing their loyalty towards the BJP from the Congress," political analyst and Kerala University political science professor C A Josukutty told DH.

The local body elections in Kerala will be held on December 9 and 11 while campaigning has already started. At present the CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) has an upper hand by having a majority in 673 local bodies, including five out of the six corporations. The Congress-led United Democratic Front is in power in 468 local bodies and BJP-led NDA in power in 25 local bodies.

The Congress is now trying to cash in on the anti-incumbency factor against the CPM government while the BJP is projecting itself as the effective alternative for the Congress and the CPM. The CPM is trying to cash in on its welfare and development initiatives. All the parties are considering the local body polls as semifinals of the assembly elections.