Ambika, 52, a voter from Varkala who moves with the help of a walker after casting her vote at Government Model HSS in Hospital ward of Varkala municipality, during the first phase of local body elections in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: NIRMAL HARINDRAN
After she cast her vote on Tuesday morning, Kamala N.S. is helped down the steps of the polling station at the Janardhanapuram Library in Varkala municipality’s Perumkulam ward. As she is guided to a nearby bench, the 78-year-old proudly displays her ink-stained left index finger for a photograph. A few voters, young and old, break away from the small queue to offer greetings as she peers through black-framed glasses and explains that she is a regular voter.
“Last time I was living close by. So it was easier to come here,” she says. The septuagenarian was among the voters in Varkala municipality who made it to polling stations in the initial hours after polling opened at 7 a.m. in seven southern Kerala districts in Phase I of the 2025 local body polls.
At the end of the day, the voting percentage in the municipality stood at 66.39%. In the 2020 elections, it was 71.23%.
Polling had begun at a slow pace in the municipal wards on Tuesday. By 8.15 a.m., a little over 6% of the total votes had been polled. By 9.15 a.m., the tally had risen to about 13%. Polling in the municipality crossed the 20% mark shortly after 10 a.m., even as political parties expected the pace to pick up later in the day. Shortly after 4 p.m., the 60% mark was crossed, prompting CPI(M)’s K.M. Laji, the Chairman in the 2020-25 dispensation to comment that the voting trend would favour the LDF. “The development witnessed in the municipality over the past five years has been received well by the people,” Mr. Laji, who is not contesting this time, said.
Three-cornered battle
One of four municipalities in Thiruvananthapuram district, Varkala has garnered special attention this election season on account of the stiff three-cornered battle between the CPI(M)-led LDF, Congress-led UDF and the BJP-led NDA. Following the delimitation, the wards had increased from 33 to 34. For the LDF, the CPI(M) had fielded candidates in 29 wards, and the CPI in five. In the UDF’s case, the Congress had candidates in 33 wards while the RSP was allocated the remaining one. In the NDA, the seats were divided 34 and two between the BJP and the BDJS, respectively. As in past elections, ‘rebel trouble’ had plagued all three fronts in varying degrees this time also. UDF coalition partner IUML was dismayed by the seat-sharing formula which resulted in rebel candidates in some wards.
In the 2020 elections, the LDF had cornered 12 seats, but the front’s tally had dipped compared to 2015. It managed to retain power in the 33-ward municipality with the aid of three independents. The UDF was pushed to the third spot with seven seats, yielding the status of major Opposition party to the BJP. The latter had increased its score from three wards in 2015 to 11 in 2020.
On Tuesday morning in the Hospital ward of Varkala municipality, Ambika, 52, limped out of the polling station at the Government Model HSS, holding on to a walker. She was helped into an autorickshaw. The scene served to recall the strident demand this election season for the postal ballot facility to be introduced to voter categories including people under medical care and the elderly. At present, local body elections offer postal ballot facility only to election officials.
In all, 127 candidates were in the fray this time in the Varkala municipality.
Published – December 09, 2025 11:20 pm IST
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