IANS/Thiruvananthapuram

The Left Democratic Front’s win in Kerala civic polls is an eye opener for Chief Minister Oommen Chandy as the ruling United Democratic Front could only take the second spot. The chief minister had earlier said the poll results would be a referendum on his governance, say analysts.
Chandy had said that for the first time in the history of the state, an incumbent government would be returned to power and the civic polls would be a pointer to that.
But as votes were counted on Saturday, the Chandy-led ruling front trailed right from the start.
When the final results were out, the LDF, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), won the polls, often termed as the semi-final ahead of assembly elections scheduled for next year.
Polling was held for 21,871 seats in 941 village, 152 blocks and 14 district panchayats besides 86 municipalities and six corporations.
The LDF won 10,338 seats against 8,846 for the Congress-led UDF and 1,244 seats for the Bharatiya Janata Party.
In the 2010 civic polls, the UDF won 65% of seats, and the then ruling LDF government secured around 33% seats.
Chandy is likely to face the heat at the Congress Party’s review meeting in the coming days.
State Congress president V M Sudheeran is also staring at testing times ahead as he was elevated to the post by the Congress high command only last year, overlooking the names suggested by Chandy and Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala.
Our correspondent Ashraf Padanna adds:
Tiny outfits that used to grab undue media space appear to have fallen by the wayside in this election.
The data with the State Election Commission shows that very few of them have a pan-Kerala appeal while others are limited to their small pocket boroughs. Some of them won through opportunistic ties.
However, regional groups upholding causes concerning the local community like the Penpillai Orumai in Munnar and Twenty20 in Kizhakkambalam scripted an emphatic victory challenging the established political parties.
Among the minor players, the Social Democratic Party of India emerged the single largest winning 40 seats (seven of them in municipalities and one in a corporation) followed by the People’s Democratic Party (8), Welfare Party (7) and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (6).
The Aam Aadmi Party, which stunned everyone by winning a by-election in Alappuzha last year, drew a blank.
Independents will call the shots in many places with a record number of 1,344 seats (villages 1,021, blocks 52, districts 4, municipalities 245 and corporation 22) that could swing either way.
The Indian Union Muslim League, a key ally of the Congress in the UDF, was elevated to the third place, pushing LDF constituent Communist Party of India to a distant fourth, winning 2,120 seats.
Kerala Congress (M) of Finance Minister K M Mani has won just 630 seats (villages 456, blocks 75, districts 12, municipalities 85 and corporations two).
The Janata Dal (United), also a UDF partner, has in its kitty 97 seats while the rival Janata Dal (Secular) has 81.
The Revolutionary Socialist Party of the UDF has 54 seats closely followed by Nationalist Congress Party (LDF) with 59 seats and 33 seats of Kerala Congress (J) (UDF).
The Kerala Congress (Secular) of controversial UDF legislator P C George, which switched sides and joined the LDF in the elections, could win 32 seats.
However, Kerala Congress (B) of R Balakrishna Pillai, another new LDF ally, could win only 19 seats.