With the State Election Commission (SEC) issuing the notification for the December local body elections on Friday, the battle for Kerala’s local bodies have begun in earnest .

While the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led [CPI(M)] Left Democratic Front (LDF) hopes for an encore of 2020 - when it dominated all levels of the local body tiers, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) are looking to change the tide, eyeing upset victories, especially in crucial Corporations and municipalities.

In the 2020 elections, the LDF had gained a clear upper hand in the district panchayats, Corporations, grama and block panchayats and the municipalities. It currently holds five of the six Corporations, 44 of the 87

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