Thiruvananthapuram: The BJP made stunning gains in the local body elections scaring both the LDF and the UDF and belying predictions that it would not be a strong force in the state.
The most striking performance was in the Thiruvananthapuram corporation where it came second by bagging 34 seats and pushing the UDF to the third place. It also won the Palakkad municipality by bagging 24 out of 52 wards and captured power in 13 panchayats as against the three it had in 2010.
From a total of 480 seats in the previous elections, it has improved its tally to some 1,500 state-wide proving that the party will be a decisive factor in the Assembly elections.
A jubilant BJP state president V. Muraleedharan claimed that politics in the state would no longer be the same again. He is also unlikely to face any threat to his continuation as state president till the Assembly elections.
BJP national president Amit Shah had specifically asked the BJP state leadership to capture the maximum number of seats in Thiruvananthapuram corporation as well as in Palakkad municipality which it has managed to do.
In Kodungalloor municipality, the BJP will sit in the Opposition. It won six seats in the Thrissur corporation and opened its account in Kozhikode corporation with seven seats.
A senior BJP leader told DC that the party had become a ‘deciding factor’ in the administration of several panchayats and municipalities.
Union minister for environment and forests and party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar congratulated the state leadership on its creditable show.
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