UDF confident of breaking the jinx in Koothattukulam and completing term uneventfully

The United Democratic Front (UDF) remains determined to break the jinx this time in the Koothattukulam municipality, where it has secured a comfortable majority on its own.

Since being elevated to a municipality in 2015, neither front has managed to complete a full term, and the civic body has seen six different chairpersons in 10 years. In the post-delimitation 26-member council, the UDF has won 16 seats—15 by the Congress and one by the Kerala Congress (Joseph)—while the Left Democratic Front (LDF) could garner only half that number. Two Independents have also won, while the Bharatiya Janata Party remains absent from the picture. This is the first time a winning front has a cushion of at least two members above the simple majority mark.

“We are yet to decide on the chairperson candidate. We will take a discussion after members are sworn in on Monday. The party’s preference is to have a single chairperson for the entire term rather than splitting the tenure among different candidates,” said P.C. Jose, the Koothattukulam mandalam president of the Congress. How far the party will succeed in implementing this remains to be seen, especially since two of its elected members, Biju John and Prince Paul John, have previously served as chairpersons.

The municipality was in the news for the wrong reasons towards the end of the previous council’s tenure. Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] councillor Kala Raju was allegedly abducted by party activists while on her way to vote for a no-confidence motion moved by the Opposition UDF, suspecting that she might vote in favour of the motion. Although she was released by the end of the day, voting was deferred and later held in August, when Ms. Raju voted in favour of the motion and was subsequently made chairperson for the final few days of the council.

In 2015, the UDF emerged as the single largest bloc, though without a simple majority, and depended on two Independents, who later joined hands with the LDF when less than two years remained in the term.