Local body elections in most states are treated as rehearsals for the assembly election. In Kerala, they are moral audits. Welfare here is not abstract. It is tangible. A pension delivered on time. Waste collected without humiliation. Roads repaired before the monsoon. Panchayats are the bloodstream of governance. Municipalities and corporations are its loudspeakers.

For decades, the Left Democratic Front’s greatest strength lay in demonstrating that decentralisation was not just a policy but a political ethic. The People’s Plan Campaign, participatory budgeting, neighbourhood committees, and mass literacy around governance created a sense of citizen-centric administration.

That legacy has not disappeared. But with the 2025 verdict the LDF’s long-standing hold over Kerala's grassroots has been challenged decisively, with the United Democratic Front (UDF) emerging as the single largest front, leading in over half of the grama panchayats and municipalities. Even more impactful was the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) breakthrough in securing control of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, a critical foothold in a state where it has struggled politically. 

Officially, the LDF leadership framed the verdict as a mid-term correction, arguing that local outcomes do not necessarily play out in Assembly elections. Yet beneath that composure, the unease over Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s style of governance was visible

Across districts, ward-level conversations revealed a recurring theme.........

© National Herald