Congress, BJP, Left: Big signals from Kerala local body polls ahead of 2026 elections

Kerala local polls

The wider political ramifications from the results in the local body elections in Kerala for -- the Bharatiya Janta Party- led National Democratic Alliance , the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), was appropriately summed up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he termed the mandate received by the NDA a "watershed moment".

The Congress-led United Democratic Front showcased a thumping victory in both rural and urban civic bodies, as the counting of votes for the 2025 Kerala local body elections. The UDF has won in four out of six corporations: Kollam, Kochi, Thrissur, and Kannur. The LDF retained Kozhikode, whereas the NDA has wrested Thiruvananthapuram from LDF.

The UDF also won 59 district panchayats, 1063 block panchayats, and 7451 grama panchayats; the LDF won 30 district panchayats, 823 block panchayats, and 6137 grama panchayats; while the NDA won just one district panchayat, 50 block panchayats, and 1363 grama panchayats.

NDA secures 50 seats in Thiruvanathapuram Corporation

Of the 101 wards, the BJP won 50, while the LDF got restricted to 29. The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) was a distant third, winning 19 wards. Two independent candidates also won, while polling on one ward was postponed following the death of a candidate, according to the Kerala State Election Commission (SEC).  The landslide win marks a major political shift, strengthening the NDA’s presence in Kerala’s urban local bodies and reshaping the state’s political landscape.

Municipal corporation was seen as a left bastion

The municipal corporation was seen as a Left bastion and, in the outgoing 100-member corporation, the CPI(M) had 51 seats, the BJP-led NDA 35 and the UDF 10. In these elections, with the seats now 101, the NDA won 50 seats, the LDF 29, and the UDF 19, with the remaining two going to Independents.

Key constituents of Kerala's ruling Left, the CPI(M) and CPI acknowledged the need for a possible course correction in their parties following the poor show in the just concluded civic polls in which their traditional rival Congress led its alliance to a decisive win while the BJP made surprising and significant inroads. The poll results had come as a shocker to the ruling dispensation months ahead of the 2026 general elections, where it is fancying a third term in a row since 2016.

How BJP is reading the outcome

Former BJP State president, K. Surendran, also said the results of the three-tier local body polls conveyed a clear message that the BJP-led NDA can no longer be excluded from Kerala’s political scene.Surendran cited the outcome in the Kozhikode Corporation as strong evidence of this shift. In Kozhikode, the BJP successfully increased its number of seats and, crucially, the results left the corporation with a hung council, as no single party or front secured an outright majority.

Summing the outcome of Kerala local polls

Meanwhile, the UDF emerged with a majority in 367 gram panchayats, while the LDF secured control of 234. The NDA won a majority in five gram panchayats. Among Corporations, the UDF gained control of three, while the NDA’s strong showing in Thiruvananthapuram stood out. In Palakkad Municipality, the NDA repeated its earlier performance by winning 25 of the 53 seats and is likely to retain control of the local body.