Kerala local body poll results: Nilambur political anomaly upended as UDF stages comeback
MALAPPURAM: Nilambur municipality, once showcased as a rare Left breakthrough in Malappuram, delivered a resounding verdict on Saturday, throwing the LDF out of power and restoring the UDF with an overwhelming majority. The LDF, which had ruled the council since its historic 2020 win, was reduced to just six seats, while the UDF swept 26 of the 36 wards. According to the final results, the IUML, which had drawn a blank in the previous council, made a strong comeback by winning seven seats. The outcome marks a complete undoing of the political realignment that began in 2020, when the LDF dismantled decades of uninterrupted UDF dominance by winning 23 of the-then 33 seats. That victory had also wiped the IUML off the council and reduced the Congress to single digits. Nilambur municipality, formed in 2010, was governed twice by the UDF before the Lefts breakthrough. The political tide turned decisively after P V Anvar emerged as a disruptor, defeating then municipality chairman Aryadan Shoukath in the 2016 Assembly election. That upset laid the foundation for the LDFs municipal triumph four years later. Though Anvar retained his Assembly seat in 2021, his subsequent estrangement from the LDF and eventual switch to the Trinamool Congress in 2025 weakened the political ecosystem that had propelled the Left to power in Nilambur. In the latest election, candidates backed by Anvar performed poorly, failing to cross double digits.
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