72.56% polling in first phase of Kerala local body polls

The first phase of the three-phase elections to 1,199 local bodies in Kerala was held on Tuesday.

Despite the Covid-19 scenario, the polling per cent reached 72.56 per cent as per initial reports in the evening.

Many who tested Covid-19 positive by Monday evening, as well as those under quarantine, turned up for voting by wearing PPE kits during the last hours of polling as instructed by the State Election Commission, while other Covid-19 positive persons were given the postal voting option.

Even very aged people, including the aged coupe of Pathanamthitta who received much attention after reviving from Covid-19, turned up for voting despite the pandemic scenario.

Polling to 6,910 wards of 395 local bodies in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha and Idukki district was held on Wednesday. The next two phases of polling are on Dec 10 and 14. Counting of votes is scheduled for December 16.

Congress senior leader A K Antony, who has his vote in Thiruvananthapuram, could not turn up as he was under treatment for Covid-19 in Delhi till recently, while former Chief Minister and veteran CPM leader V S Achuthanandan, who used to regularly cast his vote in Alappuzha district, did not turn up owing to health problems.

The local body polls are considered as the semi-finals of the Assembly polls to be held in five months time. The BJP is pinning high hopes of winning the Thiruvananthapuram corporation, which they lost to the LDF by only a few seats in 2015, and retaining the Palakkad municipality. But internal feuds among the party-state leaders is indeed a cause for concern for the party.

The CPM-led Left Democratic Front is concerned if the series of allegations against the government over nexus with gold smuggling accused and irregularities in a housing scheme for the poor would affect their prospects. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that it would be a cakewalk for the Left Front owing to the welfare and development initiates of his government over the last four year.

Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said that the local body election results would witness the Left Front facing another debacle owing their corrupt governance. He also said that the polls would once again prove that there was no space for BJP in Kerala.