While the counting of votes in Kerala local body polls is underway, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the LDF had secured a colourful victory. He said that LDF has emerged victorious despite facing false accusations. “The elections have yet again proved that BJP has no space in Kerala,” he added. He said that in 2015, LDF had secured only seven district panchayats, but this time they have improved that tally to 11.
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala said, “Looking at the 2015 elections, LDF has nothing to rejoice about since their leads are only limited to District Panchayats. The main concern for the panchayat elections has been local issues, and there was no political reply to the state government as the media and others had expected. However, the people will consider the same larger political issues in the state in the next assembly elections just as much as it was a concern during the last Lok Sabha elections.”
CPM Polit Bureau member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said that the party had bagged an epic victory in local body polls and all malignant campaigns led by UDF and BJP aiming to destroy the government has backfired. He even expressed the confidence that a similar result will be reflected in the upcoming assembly elections.
According to latest reports, the Left Democratic Front’s CPI (M) is leading in almost 520 of the total 941 panchayats. A Vijayaraghavan, CPM state secretary and LDF convener, said that the public had rejected the attempts to damage the “virtues of the state”, and this is a proud moment for each Keralite. He even expressed that this victory is a “hopeful indicator”.
Declaring an open war against CPM in the assembly polls, BJP state president K Surendran has announced that the upcoming Assembly elections will be a tight contest between CPM and BJP. He even took to Twitter to talk about the LSG polls.
He even claimed that ‘Congress Muktha’ Kerala would soon be a reality. The BJP leader added that CPM should thank Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala and Oommen Chandy for winning with flying colours in the local body polls.
