Left wilts in Election Results 2010 Kerala

After floundering in the civic polls in West Bengal, the CPM has come a cropper in Kerala as well.

In a replay of its fortunes, the CPM bit the dust in several districts of the southern state, hardly seven months before the state holds assembly elections.

The polls possibly indicated what lay in store for the CPM- led LDF in the assembly elections.

The Congress and its allies won in 12 of 13 districts, whose results were declared on Wednesday. The results of the Kozhikode district will be declared on Sunday. The BJP, contrary to expectations, widened its base in the state.

The CPM, which currently reigns over 90 per cent of the local bodies in the state, lost in the districts of Kassargod, Wayanad, Malappuram, Palackkad, Thrissur, Ernakulam, Kottayam and Idukki.

The LDF lost control of Kochi — which it had ruled for over 32 years — and Thrissur to the UDF, but managed to retain the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation with a wafer- thin margin of one seat in the 100- division council.

The LDF also retained the Kollam Corporation.

The LDF suffered a setback in the municipalities as well. It could retain control of only 18 of the 59 municipalities. But it drew a blank in Alappuzha district, the cradle of Communism in Kerala. It also drew a blank in Malappuram, a Muslim- dominated area. Though the BJP did not emerge in the majority in any of the municipalities, the UDF cannot rule without the saffron party’s backing in at least a dozen of the bodies.