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1199 of 1200 local bodies in Kerala[a] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 76.2% ( 1.5%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Elections to local bodies (Panchayats,Municipalities andCorporations) inKerala 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 thestate government, won majorities in more than half of allgrama panchayats, two-thirds ofdistrict panchayats and in all municipal corporations barringKannur.United Democratic Front (UDF), led byIndian 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 theprevious election in 2015.National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led byBharatiya Janata Party (BJP), increased their tally of wards won and secured a majority in two municipalities and nineteen panchayats.
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]
An all-party meeting filed a plea inKerala High Court to defer the polls, which was set for November 2020, considering the increasing COVID cases.[7]
An ordinance by theGovernor 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]
TheLDF is the coalition of left wing and far-left parties, led by theCPIM. TheUDF is a coalition consisting chiefly of centrist and centre-left parties led by theINC. TheNDA is led by theBJP.[1]
Twenty20 Kizhakkambalam, officially anonprofitcharitable organization formed byAnna Kitex Group, fielded candidates in five panchayats, including in Kizhakkambalam where they had won in 2015.[10]V4 Kochi, an apolitical organisation had 74 candidates contesting in all wards ofKochi Corporation.[11]KJS, led byPoonjar MLAP. C. George, contested independently in four district panchayats, four block panchayats and two grama panchayats inKottayam district.[12]Thiruvananthapuram Vikasana Munnettam an apolitical organisation contested in 14 wards ofThiruvananthapuram Corporation.[13]
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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) |
The president of theKerala unit of BJP K. Surendran claimed that the incumbent LDF government would face a setback in the election due to the2020 Kerala gold smuggling case, in relation to which the Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan's then principal secretary was arrested byEnforcement Directorate.[16] The opposition UDF faced several infightings, one among which an alliance partner,Kerala Congress (M), underwent a split with the faction led byJose K. Mani joining LDF.[17] BJP faced factionalism between some of its top leaders and the state president.[18][19]
Voters list for the election was published on 17 June.[20] The final list was published on 1 October with a supplemental list published on 10 November.[21]
| 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.[23]
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.[24]
1.68 lakh candidates filed nominations to various local bodies,[25] which was dwindled down to 74,899 candidates after the rest were either rejected or withdrawn.[26] In total there are 34,744 polling booths; 29,321 in panchayats, 3,422 in municipalities and 2,001 in corporations.[27]
| 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 andIdukki districts
Phase II:Ernakulam,Kottayam,Thrissur,Palakkad andWayanad districts
Phase III:Malappuram,Kozhikode,Kannur andKasaragod districts
| Districts | Voter Turnout[28][29][30][31][32] | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | |||
All of the three major pre-poll alliances in the state increased their vote share compared to that in theprevious election.
| 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)[37] | 3 (4) | 0 () | 0 () | 0 ()[b] | 14 |
| Municipalities[38] | 43 (2)[39] | 41 (1) | 2 (1) | 0 () | 0 ()[c] | 86 |
| Corporations | 5 (1) | 1 (1 ) | 0 () | 0 () | 0 () | 6 |
| 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 |
| 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[40] | 24 (1) | 24 (3)[41] | 6 () | 1 (4) | 55 | LDF | Hung[d] |
| Kannur | 19 (7) | 34 (7) | 1 (1) | 1 (1) | 55 | Hung(UDF mayorship) | UDF |
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 byPinarayi Vijayan. Jose K. Mani faction ofKerala Congress (M), which left UDF to join LDF, performed well in traditional UDF strongholds inKottayam,Pathanamthitta andIdukki districts.[42] UDF improved its position in the districts ofErnakulam andMalappuram.
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 OppositionRamesh 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 presidentJ. P. Nadda and state president K. Surendran thanked the voters for providing an improved mandate to their party in the election[43][44]
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.[38]
LDF won control in 43 municipalities, UDF in 41 and BJP in 2 municipalities.[39] InKalamassery municipality, UDF won control of the municipality by drawing lots, as both they and LDF had equal backing in the administrative council.[45] LDF also controls 11 district panchayats, while UDF got the remaining 3. The latter assumed control ofWayanad district panchayat after drawing lots.[37]
21 year oldArya Rajendran became the mayor of Thiruvananthapuram corporation, thereby becoming theyoungest ever mayor of a municipal corporation in India.[46][47]
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 ofAruvappulam Grama panchayat inPathanamthitta. She had filed her nomination on November 18, days before she turned 21.[48][49][50]