All Eyes On The Capital As Kerala Begins Local Body Elections

Kerala is voting today in the first phase of the local body elections, with seven southern districts voting across the three-tier panchayat system, municipalities, and corporations. The sharpest political focus, however, is on the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram, where a high-stakes triangular contest is unfolding. The BJP—bolstered by its substantial vote share in the city—is pushing aggressively to wrest control from the incumbent CPI(M)-led LDF, while the Congress is mounting an all-out battle to reassert its relevance in the capital’s political landscape.

The two-phase local body election, seen as the semi-final to the 2026 Assembly polls, witnessed an intense campaign from all three political fronts. For the Congress—stung by back-to-back Assembly defeats in 2016 and 2021—the party hopes this election will help anchor its political comeback. But the campaign was abruptly disrupted by the scandal involving its MLA Rahul Mankoottathil, whose alleged sexual misconduct dominated headlines.

Just as the Congress and the UDF were attempting to centre their pitch on the Sabarimala gold theft case, the allegations against the young legislator derailed their narrative and undercut their momentum to a significant extent. However, the Congress hopes the scandal will remain an isolated issue, insisting that the personal conduct of a leader—now expelled from the party—should not damage its broader prospects.The CPI(M), meanwhile, is banking on the raft of welfare schemes recently announced by the state government.

Though the Sabarimala gold theft case, which has drawn in some of its prominent leaders, has put the party and the LDF on the defensive, the Left is confident of extending its winning streak in the local body polls.For the BJP, this election is particularly crucial, as the party believes it is on the cusp of making significant inroads ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.In the seven districts going to the polls tomorrow, the LDF enters the contest from a position of strength. In the 2020 local body elections, the front delivered a commanding performance: barring two, all district panchayats in the region are currently led by the LDF. A majority of gram panchayats and block panchayats also remain under its control, and the Left governs all three municipal corporations in these districts.

This time, the spotlight is firmly on the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, where the BJP—now the principal opposition—is hoping to script a major political upset. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the party’s candidate and current state president, Rajiv Chandrasekhar, had narrowed the gap, losing to Shashi Tharoor by just 16,000 votes. Sensing an opportunity, the BJP has fielded former state police officer R. Sreelekha as its mayoral candidate.The Congress, which managed to win only 10 of the 100 council seats in the last corporation election, has put forward former MLA Sabarinathan as its pick for mayor.

Currently, the LDF holds 52 seats, while the BJP has 35. Congress leader K. Muraleedharan, who is overseeing the party's campaign, has alleged that the BJP and CPI(M) have been operating “like a joint force” within the corporation. The UDF, he said, has consistently raised key civic issues and believes that voters are now ready for a change.The BJP, meanwhile, has promised an ambitious future for the capital, including a proposal to bring one of the 2036 Olympic venues to Thiruvananthapuram. Rajiv Chandrasekhar has said the party will formally request the central government to consider the city as a host location.The CPI(M) counters this with its own narrative of performance, asserting that a decade of city administration and sustained infrastructural development gives the LDF substantial grounds for a renewed mandate.

As Kerala enters this two-phase electoral exercise—widely viewed as a precursor to the 2026 Assembly contest—the political landscape is marked by both continuity and churn. The LDF seeks to defend its entrenched grassroots network and leverage the state government’s welfare push, even as allegations in the Sabarimala gold theft case loom over its campaign. The Congress, eager to reclaim lost ground, is battling internal crises and reputational setbacks even as it tries to rebuild organisational confidence through the local bodies. The BJP, buoyed by steady growth in urban centres and a sharpened campaign pitch, is testing whether its incremental gains can translate into institutional control and a broader political breakthrough.

How these competing forces play out—especially in high-visibility battlegrounds like Thiruvananthapuram—will offer crucial clues about Kerala’s evolving political arithmetic. While local body polls often turn on hyperlocal issues, this round carries an outsized symbolic weight. The results on December 13 will not only shape grassroots governance for the next five years but also signal the momentum each front brings into the Assembly election cycle.