LDF comes out on top in Attingal municipality

The script in the local body election results in the Attingal municipality played out almost in a manner similar to the previous two elections, with the Left Democratic Front (LDF) coming out on top. However, with 16 seats, it still fell one short of the required majority of 17. The front would be hoping to secure the support of at least one of the two independents who won. The United Democratic Front (UDF) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ended up with seven seats each.

In 2020, the LDF had secured 18 seats, while the BJP had won in 7 seats and UDF in 6. Since 2019, when it lost the Lok Sabha election from the Attingal constituency after an unchallenged run of 28 years, the LDF has been apprehensive of fortunes reversing in the assembly and local body polls too, despite voter considerations being starkly different in these elections. In the Lok Sabha elections, the LDF candidate lost out by a slender margin of 684 votes.

But what worried it more were the gains made by the BJP, which increased its vote share from 24.97% to 31.64% with an increase of over 59,000 votes compared to the 2019 general elections. However, the BJP could not build on these gains in the local body polls, enabling the LDF to scrape through.