Senior Congress leaders share sweets at Indira Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday, following the UDF’s dominating performance in the State local body election.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
A compelling showing in the local body elections appears to have helped the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition shrug off the despondency of having been shut out of government since 2016. The UDF also views the victory as a stepping stone to winning the Assembly elections in 2026. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s post on X reflected the party’s newfound optimism.
He thanked the Kerala electorate for the “decisive verdict” and expressed confidence that the UDF would “receive a similar mandate” in the Assembly elections. Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Sunny Joseph, and All India Congress Committee general secretary K. C. Venugopal shared the sentiment with the journalists. Mr. Satheesan said the UDF’s emergence as a big tent accommodating varied social groups catalysed the coalition’s “best performance since the first elections for local bodies in 1995”.
‘Victory of the people’
He credited “Team UDF” for reasserting its political identity as the sole bulwark against Hindutva ascendancy by thwarting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) bid for electoral dominion, allegedly with Left Democratic Front (LDF) help, in several constituencies. Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala termed the results a “victory of the people”. He said the UDF had regained its 2010 winning streak. However, he said the victory should not blind leaders to the challenges that lie ahead.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Sunny Joseph, MLA, said the UDF fought a twin-pronged battle against the LDF and the NDA with a relatively depleted election war chest. The UDF defeated the LDF’s bid to diminish the Opposition through voter suppression, brazen electoral boundary manipulation, and covert tactical alliances with the NDA. Mr. Joseph said the UDF’s campaign, which spotlighted the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple gold theft as emblematic of the government’s disdain for personal faith, corruption, and nepotism, resonated strongly with the electorate. He accused the NDA of “slinking away” from the Sabarimala issue to maintain its tacit alliance with the LDF.
Mr. Venugopal accused the LDF of “gifting the mayoralty of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation” to the NDA. He stated that the LDF’s covert acceptance of the NDA’s anti-worker labour code and revanchist National Education Policy (NEP) had exposed its “true face” to Kerala’s secular-democratic electorate.
Wayanad conclave
A Congress insider said the UDF’s leadership conclave in Sulthan Bathery in Wayanad early in the year laid the road map to the Opposition’s robust performance in the local body polls. It streamlined the candidate selection process, factoring in caste, religion, and age demographics alongside public appeal and leadership. Moreover, the UDF executed a boots-on-ground operation that prioritised doorstep conversations with voters.
Furthermore, the UDF prepared a region-specific ‘chargesheet’ against the government, emphasising local issues such as human-wildlife conflict, a cratering agrarian economy, and a decline in public service delivery, especially in health. At the same time, he said, the UDF presented a credible alternative to local body governance for people fed up with decades of LDF rule.
He said the UDF’s decision to suspend leaders accused of serial sexual predation put the onus on the LDF to do the same. “The LDF’s shortcomings in enforcing probity of leaders in public life resonated strongly with voters,” he added.
Published – December 13, 2025 08:08 pm IST
