2020 Kerala local elections

2020 Kerala Local Elections

8, 10 and 14 December 2020
1199 of 1200 local bodies in Kerala [a]
Turnout	76.2% (1.5%)
Alliance   LDF   UDF   NDA Percentage 40.2%[2] 37.9% 15.0% Swing (2.8%) (0.7%) (1.7%) Grama Panchayat 514 321 19 Block Panchayat 108 38 0 District Panchayat 11 3 0 Municipality 43 41 2 Corporation 5 1 0

Elections to local bodies (Panchayats, Municipalities and Corporations) in Kerala were held in December 2020.^[3] Polling took place over 3 days; on 8, 10 and 14 December, with the votes counted and results announced on 16 December.^[4]

Left Democratic Front (LDF), who also formed the state government, won majorities in more than half of all grama panchayats, two-thirds of district panchayats and in all municipal corporations barring Kannur. United Democratic Front (UDF), led by Indian National Congress (INC), despite improving its vote share by 0.7% won just three out of fourteen district panchayats and one corporation, in comparison to seven and two respectively in the previous election in 2015. National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), increased their tally of wards won and secured a majority in two municipalities and nineteen panchayats.

Background

Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, 1994 made provisions for the creation of local bodies at the village, block and district levels. The Kerala Municipalities Act, 1994 made provisions for the creation of municipalities and corporations.^[5]

In total, the state has 1200 local self-governing bodies – 941 grama panchayats, 14 district panchayats, 152 block panchayats, 87 municipalities and 6 corporations.^[6]

COVID-19 pandemic

An all-party meeting filed a plea in Kerala High Court to defer the polls, which was set for November 2020, considering the increasing COVID cases.^[7]

An ordinance by the Governor of the state, which temporarily amended Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, 1994, allowed COVID-19 quarantined patients to vote via postal ballots and increases the voting time by two hours.^[8][9]

Parties and coalitions

The LDF is the coalition of left wing and far-left parties, led by the CPIM. The UDF is a coalition consisting chiefly of centrist and centre-left parties led by the INC. The NDA is led by the BJP.^[1]

Chellanam 20/20, a newly formed civic forum, contested in all 21 wards in Chellanam panchayat.^[10][11] Twenty20 Kizhakkambalam, officially a nonprofit charitable organization formed by Anna Kitex Group, fielded candidates in five panchayats, including in Kizhakkambalam where they had won in 2015.^[12] V4 Kochi, an apolitical organisation had 74 candidates contesting in all wards of Kochi Corporation.^[13] KJS, led by Poonjar MLA P. C. George, contested independently in four district panchayats, four block panchayats and two grama panchayats in Kottayam district.^[14] Thiruvananthapuram Vikasana Munnettam an apolitical organisation contested in 14 wards of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation.^[15]

Previous composition

Vote Share by alliance in 2015^[16]

  LDF (37.4%)

  UDF (37.2%)

  NDA (13.3%)

  Other (12.1%)

Local body wise

^[17]

2015 Kerala local body elections

Local self-government body	Local Bodies in lead				Total
	LDF	UDF	NDA	Others/Hung
Gram Panchayats	549	365	14	13	941
Block Panchayats	90	61	0	1	152
District Panchayats	7	7	0	0	14
Municipalities	44	41	1	0	86
Corporations	4	2	0	0	6

Ward-wise

Local self-government body	Wards won				Total
	LDF	UDF	NDA	Others
grama Panchayats	7,623	6,324	933	1,078	15,962
Block Panchayats	1,088	917	21	53	2,076
District Panchayats	170	145	3	4	331
Municipalities	1,263	1,318	236	259	3,122
Corporations	196	143	52	24	414

Municipal Corporations

Corporation	Wards won				Total	Alliance in majority
	LDF	UDF	NDA	Others
Thiruvananthapuram	42	21	35	3	100	Hung (LDF mayorship)
Kozhikode	50	18	7	0	75	LDF
Kochi	23	38	2	11	74	UDF
Kollam	36	16	2	1	55	LDF
Thrissur	23	21	6	5	55	Hung (LDF mayorship)
Kannur	26	27	0	2	55	Hung (UDF mayorship)

Campaign

The president of the Kerala unit of BJP K. Surendran claimed that the incumbent LDF government would face a setback in the election due to the 2020 Kerala gold smuggling case, in relation to which the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's then principal secretary was arrested by Enforcement Directorate.^[18] The opposition UDF faced several infightings, one among which an alliance partner, Kerala Congress (M), underwent a split with the faction led by Jose K. Mani joining LDF.^[19] BJP faced factionalism between some of its top leaders and the state president.^[20][21]

Voters and polls

Voters list for the election was published on 17 June.^[22] The final list was published on 1 October with a supplemental list published on 10 November.^[23]

Voters list^[24]

Group of voters	Voters population
Male	1,31,72,629
Female	1,44,83,668
Transgenders	282
Total Voters	2,76,56,579

As the term of the current members of local bodies end on November 11, three-member administrative committees would be formed and take over administration in each local body, in accordance with Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, 1994, and the Kerala Municipality Act, 1994.^[25]

Kerala High Court dismissed petitions which alleged that reservation of local body constituencies continued for a third successive term citing that the court would not interfere in elections.^[26]

1.68 lakh candidates filed nominations to various local bodies,^[27] which was dwindled down to 74,899 candidates after the rest were either rejected or withdrawn.^[28] In total there are 34,744 polling booths; 29,321 in panchayats, 3,422 in municipalities and 2,001 in corporations.^[29]

Schedule

Event	Date
Publishing of final voters' list	1 October 2020
Announcement of election schedule Enactment of Model Code of Conduct	6 November 2020
Last date to file nomination	19 November 2020
Scrutiny of nomination	20 November 2020
Last date to withdraw nomination	23 November 2020
Polling	Phase I: 8 December 2020
	Phase II: 10 December 2020
	Phase II: 14 December 2020
Announcement of results	16 December 2020

Phase I: Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha and Idukki districts

Phase II: Ernakulam, Kottayam, Thrissur, Palakkad and Wayanad districts

Phase III: Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod districts

Result

Districts	Voter Turnout[30][31][32][33][34]
District wise map of Kerala	Phase	District	%
	Phase I	Thiruvananthapuram	70.0	73.1
		Kollam	73.8
		Pathanamthitta	69.7
		Alappuzha	77.4
		Idukki	74.7
	Phase II	Kottayam	73.9	76.4
		Ernakulam	77.1
		Thrissur	75.0
		Palakkad	78.0
		Wayanad	79.5
	Phase III	Malappuram	78.9	78.7
		Kozhikode	79.0
		Kannur	78.6
		Kasaragod	77.2
Kerala			76.2

Vote Share by alliance^[2]

  LDF (40.2%)

  UDF (37.9%)

  NDA (15.0%)

  Other (6.9%)

Popular votes

All of the three major pre-poll alliances in the state increased their vote share compared to that in the previous election.

Summary of results of the 2020 Kerala local body elections^[2]^[16]^[35]^[36]^[37]

	Alliance		Political party	Votes	Vote %	±pp
	LDF		Left Democratic Front	8,450,430	40.18%	2.82%
			Communist Party of India (Marxist)	5,628,188	26.71%	—
			Communist Party of India	1,459,396	6.93%	—
			Kerala Congress (M)	534,759	2.54%	—
			Loktantrik Janata Dal	293,814	1.40%	1.40%
			Janata Dal (Secular)	175,613	0.83%	—
			Indian National League	139,016	0.66%	—
			Nationalist Congress Party	132,933	0.63%	—
			Congress (Secular)	45,215	0.21%	—
			Kerala Congress (B)	39,140	0.19%	—
			Janadhipathya Kerala Congress	1,612	0.01%	0.01%
			Kerala Congress (Skaria Thomas)	744	0.00%	—
	UDF		United Democratic Front	7,988,255	37.92%	0.69%
			Indian National Congress	5,327,605	25.29%	—
			Indian Union Muslim League	1,909,729	9.06%	—
			Kerala Congress (Joseph)	419,049	1.99%	1.99%
			Revolutionary Socialist Party	171,483	0.82%	—
			Communist Marxist Party (John)	80,304	0.38%	—
			Kerala Congress (Jacob)	48,448	0.23%	—
			All India Forward Bloc	19,174	0.09%	—
			Bharatiya National Janata Dal	12,463	0.06%	—
	NDA		National Democratic Alliance	3,164,454	15.02%	1.74%
			Bharatiya Janata Party	3,118,249	14.80%	—
			Bharath Dharma Jana Sena	26,336	0.13%	0.13%
			Kerala Kamaraj Congress	14,358	0.07%	—
			Kerala Congress (Thomas)	4,975	0.02%	—
			Lok Janshakti Party	536	0.00%
	Others		Social Democratic Party of India	132,423	0.63%	—
			Twenty 20	41,845	0.20%	—
			Bahujan Samaj Party	36,284	0.17%	—
			Welfare Party of India	32,630	0.15%	—
			Kerala Janapaksham (Secular)	27,995	0.13%	—
			Peoples Democratic Party	26,223	0.12%	—
			Revolutionary Marxist Party of India	24,899	0.12%	—
			Aam Aadmi Party	10,539	0.05%	—
			Janathipathiya Samrakshana Samithy	2,140	0.01%	—
			Marxist-Leninist Party of India (Red Flag)	2,055	0.01%	—
	IND
			Independents	1,206,878	5.73%	—
Total				21,068,782	100.00%

Local body wise

Seat Share in Grama Panchayats (By alliance)

  LDF (54.62%)

  UDF (34.11%)

  NDA (2.01%)

  Others (9.24%)

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Seat Share in Block Panchayats (By alliance)

  LDF (71.05%)

  UDF (25.00%)

  Others (3.95%)

Seat Share in District Panchayats (By alliance)

  LDF (78.57%)

  UDF (21.43%)

Seat Share in Municipalities (By alliance)

  LDF (50.00%)

  UDF (47.67%)

  NDA (2.33%)

Seat Share in Corporations (By alliance)

  LDF (83.33%)

  UDF (16.67%)

^[38]

2020 Kerala local body elections

Local self-government body	Local Bodies in lead					Total
	LDF	UDF	NDA	Others	Tie
Grama Panchayats	514 (35)	321 (44)	19 (5)	23 (15)	64 (51)	941
Block Panchayats	108 (20)	38 (24)	0 ()	0 (1)	6 (5)	152
District Panchayats	11 (4)[39]	3 (4)	0 ()	0 ()	0 ()[b]	14
Municipalities[40]	43 (2)[41]	41 (1)	2 (1)	0 ()	0 ()[c]	86
Corporations	5 (1)	1 (1 )	0 ()	0 ()	0 ()	6

Ward-wise

Local self-government body	Wards in lead				Total
	LDF	UDF	NDA	Others
Grama Panchayats	7,262 (361)	5,893 (431)	1,182 (249)	1,620 (542)	15,962
Block Panchayats	1,266 (178)	727 (190)	37 (16)	49 (4)	2,080
District Panchayats	212 (42)	110 (35)	2 (1)	6 (2)	331
Municipalities	1,167 (96)	1,172 (146)	320 (84)	416 (157)	3,078
Corporations	207 (11)	120 (23)	60 (8)	27 (3)	414

Municipal Corporations

Corporation	Wards won				Total	Previous alliance in majority	Alliance in majority
	LDF	UDF	NDA	Others
Thiruvananthapuram	51 (9)	10 (11)	35 ()	5 (4)	100	LDF	LDF
Kozhikode	51 (1)	17 (1)	7 ()	0 ()	75	LDF	LDF
Kochi	34 (11)	31 (7)	5 (3)	4 (7)	74	UDF	LDF
Kollam	39 (3)	9 (7)	6 (4)	1 ()	55	LDF	LDF
Thrissur[42]	24 (1)	24 (3)[43]	6 ()	1 (4)	55	LDF	Hung[d]
Kannur	19 (7)	34 (7)	1 (1)	1 (1)	55	Hung (UDF mayorship)	UDF

Aftermath

Result analysis

All of the three major pre-poll alliances, LDF, UDF, and NDA, improved their vote share compared to that in the previous election. The result showed popular support in favour of LDF led government, led by Pinarayi Vijayan. Jose K. Mani faction of Kerala Congress (M), which left UDF to join LDF, performed well in traditional UDF strongholds in Kottayam, Pathanamthitta and Idukki districts.^[44] UDF improved its position in the districts of Ernakulam and Malappuram.

Reactions

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan hailed his alliance's victory as that of secularism and inclusive development, while remarking that the results were a befitting reply to UDF and BJP. Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala said that UDF voter base was intact highlighting that they had won more municipalities and mentioned that he would introspect into their poor performance in Thiruvananthapuram corporation. BJP national president J. P. Nadda and state president K. Surendran thanked the voters for providing an improved mandate to their party in the election^[45][46]

TREND software error

The final results of a few panchayats and municipalities were changed due to an error in the TREND software, which was used for displaying election results, as per the State Election Commission. This meant that the lead UDF had over LDF in municipalities was cut from 10 municipalities to 4. The Election Commission published the results in its official website after rectifying the error.^[40]

Post-election incidents

LDF won control in 43 municipalities, UDF in 41 and BJP in 2 municipalities.^[41] In Kalamassery municipality, UDF won control of the municipality by drawing lots, as both they and LDF had equal backing in the administrative council.^[47] LDF also controls 11 district panchayats, while UDF got the remaining 3. The latter assumed control of Wayanad district panchayat after drawing lots.^[39]

21 year old Arya Rajendran became the mayor of Thiruvananthapuram corporation, thereby becoming the youngest ever mayor of a municipal corporation in India.^[48][49]

Reshma Mariam Roy, who was the youngest candidate in the elections, became the youngest ever president of a panchayat in Kerala at 21 years old after being elected as the president of Aruvappulam Grama panchayat in Pathanamthitta. She had filed her nomination on November 18, days before she turned 21.^[50][51][52]

See also

• Elections in Kerala
• 2015 Kerala local body elections
• 2016 Kerala Legislative Assembly election
• 2021 Kerala Legislative Assembly election
• 2020 Paravur Municipal election

Footnotes

1. Mattanur municipality elections are held in a different cycle, hence elections to this municipality are not held in 2020.^[1]
2. The ties were later resolved, LDF now control 11 and UDF controls 3 district panchayats. Refer Aftermath section
3. The ties were later resolved and LDF now control 43 municipalities and UDF controls 41. Refer Aftermath section
4. LDF later won mayorship over the corporation with support from independent members

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External links

• http://www.trend.kerala.gov.in/views/index.php Archived 2020-12-16 at the Wayback Machine