In Kerala Local Body Polls, A Big BJP Win, And Another Shashi Tharoor Stinger

The results in the local body elections in Kerala have come as a setback for the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the state ahead of elections next year, with the Congress-led United Democratic Front ahead in four out of six municipal bodies and 14 district panchayats, against the ruling coalition's six. 

The BJP has, however, emerged as the biggest, and perhaps most unexpected, headline grabber, with the NDA led by the party winning 50 seats in the 101-member municipal corporation in Kerala's capital city of Thiruvananthapuram, securing such a big mandate there for the first time. The BJP won its first-ever Lok Sabha seat in the southern state last year and has only ever had one MLA there.