Over 75,500 candidates will be testing their electoral fortunes in the keenly watched local body polls to be held in two phases in Kerala on November 2 and 5 as they are seen as the semi-finals to the Assembly polls to be held next year.
The presence of a large number of rebels in both fronts and cosying up of Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP), the organisation of the numerically strong backward Ezhava community, to BJP, will make the fight tough for both the ruling Congress-led UDF and opposition LDF headed by CPI(M).
Yesterday was the last date for withdrawal of nominations and despite stern warnings to the rebels from party leaderships to withdraw nominations, many are still in the fray to challenge the official nominees.
A government press release today said there are a total of 75,549 candidates for the polls to the local bodies.
Daughters of two former Chief Ministers– E K Nayanar and P K Vasudevan Nair — are among the contestants.
In the 14 district panchayats, 1,282 candidates are in the fray, while in 152 block panchayats 6,915 candidates are there, and in 941 village panchyats 54,956 nominations have been filed.
In 86 municipalities, 10,433 candidates and in six municipal corporations, 1,963 candidates are trying their luck.
While 6,507 candidates are in fray in Thiruvananthapuram, in Ernakulam the number is 7497, while in Thrissur 7,070 candidates are contesting.
The two fronts and BJP have started campaigning as the polls are hardly two weeks away.
BJP, which so far failed to taste success in Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in Kerala, is hoping to do well with SNDP support.
In the 2010 civic polls, UDF won Kochi and Thrissur corporations while LDF came to power in the prestigous Thiruvanthapuram, Kozhikode and Kollam. BJP only managed to get nine corporation wards in the last polls.
Kannur corporation is the new one that would go to polls along with the existing six this time.
Of the 59 muncipalities that went to the polls in 2010, UDF won in 39 muncipalities and LDF in the remaining 20. As per municipality ward results, UDF won in 1097 wards, while LDF in 803 and BJP in 79. With regard to village panchayats, 582 were won by UDF and 384 by LDF and four by BJP.
The counting of votes will be held on November 7.