Initial trends in Kerala civic polls: Left ahead

Thiruvananthapuram: Despite facing a host of controversies ahead of the civic body polls, initial trends on Wednesday showed the ruling CPI-M-led-Left ahead of its detractors.

The Congress-led UDF is putting up a better show in the first round of counting that began at 8 a.m. while the hype created by the BJP is yet to catch on.

The shocker came at the Kochi corporation, where the Congress' mayor candidate N.Venugopal lost by just one vote to the BJP.

In the three-tier local body structure the initial trends indicate that in the six corporations in the state the Left is ahead in four and UDF is ahead in two corporations.

In the municipalities, it's the UDF that leads in 47, while the Left is ahead in 27 and the BJP in 4.

When it comes to the 14 district votes the Left is leading in eight and the UDF in four.

While in the Block Panchayat, the Left is ahead in 23, the UDF in 52 and the BJP in one.

In the Gram Panchayats the Left is ahead in 159 and the UDF in 144 while the BJP in 16.