The Left Democratic Front (LDF) has chosen sitting CPM councillor (Vengeri) O Sadasivan as its mayoral nominee for the Kozhikode Corporation. Sadasivan won from the Thadambattu Thazham division in the recently held local body elections.

Dr S Jayasree, a senior councillor and the incumbent chairperson of the standing committee on health, has been named as the LDF’s nominee for the deputy mayor post. She represents the Kottooli division. The decision was taken at a CPM secretariat meeting on Wednesday and later endorsed at an LDF meeting on Thursday afternoon. LDF Kozhikode district convener Mukkom Muhammad announced the decisions.

A third-term councillor, Sadasivan, was selected for his extensive experience in local governance and party work. The front opted for a new mayoral nominee after its earlier choice and incumbent deputy mayor, C P Musafar Ahamed, lost to the UDF’s S K Aboobecker in Meenchantha ward (ward 39) by 271 votes.
The deputy mayor’s post in the Kozhikode Corporation is reserved for women.

The recent elections marked a difficult phase for the LDF, which fell short of securing an absolute majority. In the 76-member council, the front emerged as the single largest bloc with 35 seats, four short of the majority, a sharp drop from the 51 seats it had won in 2020.

The UDF improved its tally from 17 to 28 seats, while the NDA registered its best-ever performance in the corporation, nearly doubling its strength from seven to 13. For the LDF, which once dominated the civic body, the results reflect a clear erosion of support, including losses in several traditional strongholds.

Even so, Kozhikode remains the only corporation among the six in Kerala that provided some relief to the LDF, which lost control of four other corporations it had governed in the previous term.