Far from the electoral carnage in big cities, a quieter victory  in the local body polls unfolded in the eastern hills of Kollam district in Kerala. Aromal S, a young SFI leader, won the Pathekkar ward of the Thenmala grama panchayat by 180 votes.

His campaign poster was endearingly simple: Aromal holding a granny close, his phone number printed alongside. Beneath it ran a promise: “When in need, don’t hesitate to call. Aromal will be by your side.” It worked.

On a day when the LDF lost 174 grama panchayats, four district panchayats, four city corporations and 15 municipalities compared to its 2020 tally, Aromal’s small win appeared bigger. It mattered because it helped the LDF wrest control of the Thenmala panchayat from the Congress on an otherwise bruising day.

Far away in Kasaragod, the CPM fielded P C Zubaida, an avid traveller and social worker, to lead the LDF’s charge in Padna panchayat. She helped the front touch the halfway mark and wrest control of the IUML bastion for the first time.

A dash of honesty, warmth and relentless door-to-door legwork may have helped swing the verdict in these two panchayats. Across the Kerala, however, the LDF chose a different register.

It went after Palakkad MLA Rahul Mamkootathil, who is being investigated for alleged sex crimes, branded the Congress a party of womanisers, and quietly aligned with the SDPI -- a party linked to the banned PFI -- even as it berated the Congress and the IUML for engaging with Jamaat-e-Islami’s Welfare Party of India. This sustained whistleblowing may have helped consolidate Muslim votes behind the UDF, particularly in northern Kerala.

The campaign also leaned heavily on welfare pensions, raised by ₹400 to ₹2,000 ahead of the polls, often pitched in a manner that made beneficiaries feel indebted. “We talked about welfare pensions every day during house visits,” said a CPM worker in her 60s in Kasaragod. “No other government would give ₹2,000 as a pension. We also told them that the pension would stop if the UDF formed the government.”

A cruder version of this sentiment was echoed by veteran CPM leader and Idukki MLA M M Mani after the defeat. “After pocketing the pensions and filling their bellies, they have smoothly turned against us,” he said of the electorate.

This mindset -- unfolding alongside allegations of sexual assault against its own leaders and investigations into the misappropriation of Sabarimala gold -- may well have tripped the electorate’s fuse. The people’s verdict was the biggest blow dealt to the CPM-led LDF since 1995.

In rural areas, it won 340 panchayats in 2025, down from 514 in 2020. In contrast, the Congress-led UDF won 504 panchayats, up from 321 in 2020.

The LDF won only 20 municipalities, down from 43 in 2020, while the UDF won 47 municipalities, up from 43 in 2020.

The UDF also clawed back in district panchayats, emerging on top in seven of the 14. In 2020, the LDF had restricted the UDF to Wayanad, Ernakulam and Malappuram. This time, the UDF wrested Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Idukki and Kozhikode from the LDF, apart from holding on to the three it had won in 2020.

Of the six city corporations in Kerala, the CPM managed to hold on to only Kozhikode, that too without a clear majority. In 2020, it had secured clear majorities in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Kozhikode, and managed to control Thrissur and Kochi by bringing Independent councillors on board.

On Saturday, the BJP’s victory over the LDF in Thiruvananthapuram corporation drew the most attention, but the defeats in Kollam Corporation and across the district were equally searing. Unlike other districts, Kollam is one place where the LDF’s twin engines -- the CPI and the CPM -- are equally influential. The front also has to shoulder responsibility for the BJP-led NDA doubling its tally in the corporation, from six to 12.

The numbers tell a grim story across districts. In Malappuram and Ernakulam districts, the CPM, which had been making incremental gains, was decimated.

In Malappuram, the CPM has been reduced from 24 panchayats in 2020 to just four. Of the 15 block panchayats, the LDF now controls only the Ponnani block panchayat, down from three. It also lost Perinthalmanna and Nilambur municipalities, and has only Ponnani municipality in its kitty.

In Ernakulam, it won only seven of the 82 panchayats, while the UDF increased its tally to 66 from 47.

Apart from losing Kochi Corporation, the LDF does not control any municipality in the district. To add salt to injury, it also lost control of Thripunithura to the BJP-led NDA.

In Alappuzha district, the LDF controls only 36 of the 72 panchayats, down from 50 in 2020. It also lost control of Alappuzha and Kayamkulam municipalities, leaving only Cherthala out of the six municipal towns in its kitty.

In the 28-member Mavelikkara municipality, the LDF won only four seats, down from nine in 2020, and was thereby relegated to third place. The BJP-led NDA won eight, down one from 2020.

In Chengannur municipality, the LDF was also an also-ran in 2020 but increased its seats this time to five, up from one. Yet it continues to languish behind the UDF and the NDA.

With the LDF’s slide and the Congress’s comeback in Central Kerala, the CPM’s new ally, Kerala Congress (M), has lost its claim to being the sole custodian of Christian votes. The Congress has overrun KC(M) in Kottayam municipality and almost beaten it on its home turf in Pala municipality. In rural areas, the LDF this time won only 19 of the 71 panchayats, down from 39. Meanwhile, the UDF increased its tally to 44 from 20. The NDA won three panchayats, up from two in 2020.

In Pathanamthitta, the LDF’s panchayat tally more than halved to 11 of the 53. The UDF increased its tally to 34 from 20 panchayats, while the BJP increased its tally to four from three.

The saving grace for the LDF was wresting control of the Pandalam municipality from the BJP.

Prof Sajid Ibrahim K M of the University of Kerala’s Department of Political Science described the LDF’s drubbing as “course correction”. “The LDF has been soaring for the past 10 years. Some course correction was needed to restore its connection with the people,” he said. “Its campaign, at least in Thiruvananthapuram, lacked vigour.”

“The UDF was the natural beneficiary of the anti-incumbency votes. I don’t think it was a positive vote for the UDF,” said Prof Ibrahim. This must be the first time the state has gone into a local body election on the back of a 10-year government.

“Today, only the BJP has committed voters. The UDF never had them, and the LDF is also losing them. So the panchayat election should not make the UDF complacent ahead of the Assembly election,” he said.

A Left-backed Independent candidate, who won from a Congress ward in Kollam’s Edamulackal panchayat, said that when people are angry, they show it in local body elections. “During my campaigning, I saw many houses in dilapidated condition... even without toilets. When we told them of an extreme poverty-free state, they felt we were mocking them,” he said.

Even where the slide was contained -- in Kasaragod, Kannur and Kozhikode -- cracks appeared. In Kasaragod, the UDF opened its account for the first time in CPM strongholds such as Kayyur-Cheemeni and Bedakam.

That did not happen in Kannur, where tightly controlled panchayats such as Cheruthazham, Kadirur, Kalliassery, Kankole-Alapadamba, Kannapuram, Karivellur-Peralam and Pinarayi, as well as Anthoor panchayat, continue their violent grip on the political landscape.

In Kannur, there was absolutely no change in urban areas. The LDF continues to control Anthoor, Iritty, Koothuparamba, Payyannur and Thalassery, while the UDF controls the other three -- Panoor, Sreekandapuram and Taliparamba municipal councils.

In Wayanad, the LDF wrested Kalpetta municipality from the UDF but ended up losing Sulthan Bathery to the UDF. In Kozhikode Corporation, the LDF saw its big guns, including the mayoral candidate, defeated, and barely managed to emerge as the single-largest front.

Yet the numbers offer the LDF enough ground to mount its 2026 campaign, and victories such as Aromal’s may point the way forward.