The killings of Bharatiya Janata Party and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) functionaries at the end of the year also sparked a major controversy in the state.
The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) registered victory for the second time in a row in the Kerala Assembly elections held this year. The party won 99 of the 140-member assembly seats and once again formed the government in the state.
CPI(M) Politburo member MA Baby told PTI-Bhasha,
People voted for LDF keeping in mind the path of development. This is a historic victory….
The Congress-led UDF, which was hoping to come to power after five years, suffered a major setback after winning just 41 seats in the assembly elections and forced the Congress party high command to make some major changes in its leadership in the state.
Subsequently, the “A” group led by former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and the “I” faction led by Ramesh Chennithala were forced to join the Kannur veteran leader K. Sudhakaran had to appoint Congress state unit chief and Paravur MLA VD Satheesan as the leader of the opposition.
Congress leader and MLA from Angamaly, Rosie M. John said, “We have definitely lost the election. that was unexpected. There have been some mistakes and we will try to rectify them. We have got a new PCC chief and a new Leader of Opposition. He is giving a new direction to the party. We will definitely come back.
The assembly election result also dealt a major blow to the BJP, which was hoping to win more seats in the Kerala Assembly, but lost its lone seat in the 2016 election to Nemom.
E. Sreedharan, popularly known as ‘Metro Man’ of BJP, was defeated by Shafi Parambil of Congress from Palakkad seat and after that he decided to retire from politics.
As soon as the assembly elections ended, the second wave of Covid-19 broke out in the state and many health experts blamed political rallies for this.
The cases under treatment in Kerala were 31,493 on April 3, which increased to 4,38,913 on May 14 and the health system has completely collapsed due to the increase in cases of infection. The cases of infection increased once again in the state after the festival of Eid and Onam from mid-June to mid-August. From the last week of August to the whole of September, the daily cases of infection in the state were more than 20,000, which at times crossed the 30,000 mark.
To deal with this, the Kerala government imposed many restrictions and made many arrangements to improve the health system. Finally, in the second week of October, the daily cases came down to less than 10 thousand.
Meanwhile, Chinese goods trader Monson Mawunkal is embroiled in a new controversy. He has been accused by the rape victim of the trader threatening her to withdraw the case. Earlier, Mavankul was arrested by the crime branch for allegedly defrauding various people to the tune of Rs 10 crore. The victim alleged that Mavunkal asked her to withdraw the rape case filed against her family friend and threatened that if she did not do so, he would release inappropriate pictures of her drawn by the friend.
The Left government also faced criticism for its handling of natural calamities like landslides caused by heavy rains in the second half of the year. More than 40 people lost their lives and properties were also damaged due to landslides and floods in different parts of the state.
At the same time, at the end of the year, a dispute arose.. Migrant workers from the northeastern areas of the country who had gathered to celebrate Christmas in the Kizhakkambalam area of Ernakulam district in Kerala turned violent and they beat up several policemen. Two police vehicles were damaged during the violence. One of these Jeeps was set on fire. At least 163 employees of ‘Kitex Company’ have been arrested in this case.
.