The Left Democratic Front retained the Mattanur municipality, winning 20 of the 34 seats in the municipal elections, even as it suffered a serious setback in the poll, going by the results of the poll announced on Wednesday.
The United Democratic Front made an impressive performance in the election this time increasing its strength in the municipal council from six to fourteen.
The UDF managed to wrest five seats from the LDF, besides winning all the three newly formed wards in the municipality.
It was the fourth elections to the Mattanur municipality, and the LDF had won all the previous elections with brutal majority.
The LDF strength in the existing council was 25 as against the 6 seats held by the UDF. The number of wards in the municipality had increased from 31 to 34 this time.
Most of the wards in the Mattanur municipality was supposed to be CPM strongholds, and the CPM leadership had failed to give any credible explanation on the loss of seats suffered by the party. Of the 20 seats won by the LDF, the CPI got one seat, while the rest of the seats went to the CPM.
The split-up of the UDF seats is: Congress-7, Muslim League-5 and the CMP-2. The Muslim League won all the five seats it contested. The LDF candidate lost the Uthiyur ward from where the present chairperson of the municipality, Seena Ismail, was elected last time.
CPM candidate K Bhaskaran, who is expected to be the next chairman of the municipality, was elected from the Perinjeri ward with a majority of 381 votes. Bhaskaran, who is the husband of CPM central committee member, K K Sailaja, is the vice-chairman of the existing municipal council. He is expected to take charge as the new chairman in the coming days.
It was a series of disputes between the LDF and the UDF over the formation of the municipality and the litigation that followed which resulted in not holding the poll for Mattanur municipality along with other local bodies in the state.