Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) won 19 of the 38 local body wards that went to bypolls in Kerala on Monday, while the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) secured 18 seats, according to the latest results.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) did not win a seat, while some wards were won by independents and other candidates. The results came in the first local body bypolls since the UDF returned to power in the Kerala Assembly elections earlier this year.
The UDF's tally represented a net loss of three seats from the sitting positions it held before the bypolls, while the LDF added three seats. The LDF captured seven wards previously held by the UDF, while the UDF won four wards that had been held by the Left.
The bypolls were held across 12 districts, with Kollam and Alappuzha the only districts not covered. The 38 wards included seats in corporations, municipalities, district panchayats, block panchayats and grama panchayats.
The UDF retained all the wards that went to polls in Pathanamthitta district, according to reports.
In Ernakulam, one of the UDF's traditional strongholds, the front faced a mixed result. The district had four wards going to the bypolls, with the UDF winning two.
The LDF made gains in Kottayam and Palakkad. It won two of the three wards contested in Kottayam and four of the seven wards that went to polls in Palakkad, according to the results reported from the districts.
In Wayanad, the UDF retained the Pallikkal division of Mananthavady, while it also retained the Kuttichira ward in Kozhikode.
The results in these wards were nevertheless marked by changes in vote margins compared with the previous elections, making individual ward-level contests important to the parties' assessment of their organisation and support base.
One of the closely watched areas was Chirayinkeezhu, where the Congress has faced internal differences in recent weeks.
Congress MLA Ramya Haridas, who won the Chirayinkeezhu Assembly seat in the April 2026 election, had been involved in a public altercation with local party leaders. The KPCC subsequently issued a warning to Haridas and district panchayat member Sajith Muttappalam following an internal inquiry.
The local body bypoll results from the area have consequently drawn attention within the Congress, although the results alone do not establish a direct connection between the internal dispute and voter behaviour.
Haridas had won the Chirayinkeezhu Assembly constituency by 1,422 votes in the 2026 election.
The 38 wards recorded an overall voter turnout of 58.81 per cent, with 1,82,160 voters casting their ballots.
Kannur recorded the highest turnout at 84.55 per cent, while Kottayam had the lowest at 54.24 per cent. Women accounted for 98,090 of the votes cast and men for 84,070, according to State Election Commission figures reported by Onmanorama.
A total of 126 candidates had contested the bypolls across the 38 wards. The electorate comprised 3,09,713 voters, according to the figures cited ahead of polling.
The bypolls produced a closely divided outcome between Kerala's 2 major political fronts.
For the UDF, retaining 19 of the 38 wards means it continued to hold the larger tally in the contests, but the loss of three sitting wards provides the LDF with a basis to highlight its gains.
For the LDF, the capture of seven wards from the UDF and a net gain of three seats give the opposition front local-level gains after its defeat in the Assembly elections.
However, the bypolls covered only 38 local wards and were triggered by different circumstances, including vacancies created after local representatives became MLAs as well as deaths and resignations. The results therefore provide a snapshot of voting patterns in the particular wards rather than a statewide vote share or Assembly-level verdict.
The State Election Commission has published the official trend and result information through its election portal.
( With inputs from agencies)