KOCHI: The IUML will contest only in 10 seats in the local body polls — the same number as in 2020 — though there is an increase in the number of total seats to 46 from 42 this time. Kalamassery is the sole assembly seat allotted to IUML in Ernakulam district.
Congress, the leading partner in the UDF, will contest in the additional four seats, taking the total number of seats it will contest to 36, up from 32. After the delimitation exercise, the total number of wards in Kalamassery municipality has risen to 46.
The Kalamassery municipality had been a stronghold of UDF since it became a municipality. With hopes of gaining power this time, LDF has announced candidates in all seats except three. While CPM will contest in 36 seats, CPI has been given 7, while Congress (S), JDS, NCP, and INL candidates will contest in one seat each.
Prominent candidates like Congress’ Seema Kannan, municipal chairperson from Ward 11, and former chairperson Jamal Manakkadan from Ward 40 are in this year’s list of 46 UDF candidates. Kalamassery, the second-highest revenue-generating municipality in Kerala, witnessed a tight competition between the ruling UDF and aspiring LDF in the 2020 local body polls.
The municipality that was in the women’s reservation category has been under the rule of the UDF council under chairperson Seema Kannan, chosen after a draw of lots after the 2020 polls, as LDF, with its 13 councillors and UDF with its 19 councillors, equally bagged independent candidates and went into a deadlock.
The 2020 elections were also the first time the BJP opened account in the municipality.