Congress to prepare chargesheets against LDF-ruled local bodies

Collection of data is underway for the Congress to piece together charge sheets against each of the local bodies governed by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the State. 

“Our campaigning in these local bodies will hinge on these charge sheets, which will be released mid-November,” said a member of the party’s political affairs committee (PAC) after its meeting in the capital on Wednesday. 

While the charge sheets will be local body-specific, the United Democratic Front’s (UDF) campaign will also highlight the ongoing investigation into the misappropriation of gold from the casings of sculptures and door frames at the Sabarimala temple. “The arrest of N. Vasu, a former president of the Travancore Devaswom Board, in the case has put the CPI(M) on the back foot, as he has definite party connections,” said the leader. 

The Congress deems the government’s announcement of a slew of welfare scheme payouts just in time for the polls a dishonest attempt to trick the voters, and the leader The Hindu spoke with said the Congress campaign would seek to expose this. 

A Congress insider said the BJP posed a more persistent and immediate threat to the UDF’s electoral prospects. “Heavy loss of anti-incumbency votes to the BJP would possibly cost the Congress more than the LDF,” he stated. 

Hence, he said, caste, age and religious demographics, including public profile and social connect, have informed the UDF’s candidate selection, including the inclusion of recognisable names in the fray. 

Importantly, the local body polls, widely reckoned as an approximate bellwether of Kerala’s political temper ahead of the Assembly elections in 2026, are also a personal test of leadership for the Congress’s top brass in the State. 

The party recently laid down the broad contours of a winning strategy for the local body polls in Wayanad. It is termed the electoral project “Mission 2025”. 

Notably, the party tasked six top leaders with ensuring UDF victory in six municipal corporations in Kerala, which the Congress views as widening its path to victory in the 2026 Assembly elections. 

They include Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan (Ernakulam), former KPCC presidents Ramesh Chennithala (Kozhikode) and K. Muraleedharan (Thiruvananthapuram), Congress working president P.C. Vishnunath (Kollam), and AICC secretary Roji M. John (Thrissur).