KOCHI: Despite bettering their performance in the district including the city corporation council, the LDF leadership is upset over the unexpected def-eat of some of its prominent candidates and the failure in wresting the corporation from the UDF. Compared to the 2010 elections, the LDF could improve its tally from 24 to 30 in the Corporation and in municipalities from one to five.
In Kochi, the Left front could not send some of its stalwarts like K.J. Jacob, Usha Praveen and Monamma Kokkad to the council. Though allegations are rife over the sabotage by a section of the party to defeat veteran K.J. Jacob, the CPM would now be careful to avoid mudslinging over the factional feud as the Assembly election is just a few months away.
The party district leadership has said that it would examine in detail what went wrong and would take corrective measures. “People perceived things differently and we are not fully clear about what went wrong. We will study the flaws and will correct it,” said K.J. Jacob.
Similar is the situation in the UDF which is ma-rred by the payment seat controversy and inner fi-ght over allocation of key posts including may-or and deputy mayor. After a neck and neck race, the final tally in the corporation council is UDF – 38, LDF — 30, BJP – 2 and others – 4.
Even while the UDF candidates had a convincing victory in many divisions, especially in west Kochi areas, where the party had a high number of rebels, the defeat of some of its stalwarts such as K.J Sohan, Leno Jacob and Deepthi Mary Varghese came as a rude shock to the UDF camp.
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