Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 16 (IANS): A jubilant Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who successfully bucked what the opposition felt would be a huge backlash due to alleged scams, on Wednesday asked the media and the opposition parties to do serious introspection, as civic poll results indicated a victory for the ruling LDF.

Even as the final results in the civic polls is yet to come, Vijayan said that he owes a big thanks to the people of Kerala, which gave the Left government a huge thumbs up, despite the massive smear campaign unleashed against them.

"Had the people believed it, the Left would not just lose the polls, but would have ceased to exist. The Congress and the BJP were hand in glove spreading lies, but the people had absolute faith in us as they gave us a resounding victory," he said.

Overall if one looks into the results in the close to 22,000 seats in the three tier local bodies, the Left, in comparison with its performance in the 2015 civic polls, is winning slightly lesser seats, while the Congress might win slightly more seats.

But what has come as a shocker for the opposition is the expected anti-incumbency wave was never there, despite Vijayan coming under the scanner of various national probe agencies in the gold smuggling case.

"The BJP has come a cropper as none will forget their tall claims on what they felt would be the outcome in the polls. It has fallen flat. The UDF trying to ride with a particular communal force also has taken a huge beating. People of Kerala know everything and the smear campaign of the opposition with the help of the media has been shown its place.

"You can never take people of Kerala for a ride, as they know everything and have given a fitting reply to all these. It would be best for their own good, if the media and the opposition introspect on what they have been doing," added Vijayan.

The clincher from Vijayan came when he said that if one looks at the previous two local body polls -- which are held a few months before the Assembly polls, it has been seen those who have won the local body polls have won the next Assembly elections.

In Kerala, no incumbent has ever retained power by winning successive Assembly polls.

"No one should forget that no government like ours had to face so many tragedies, starting from the Ockhi waves, then came Nipah, two successive floods in 2018 and 2019 and then the biggest threat- Covid. It was only because of the support of the people that we could face everything," said Vijayan.

"We are not asking all to support the Left, what we are saying is we always welcome constructive criticism. We assure the people that our only interest is the welfare of the state and we will go forward, what we did in the past four and a half years. We are soon coming out with a 100 days programme and it would be announced when the poll restrictions are lifted," he added.

The Congress and the BJP have gone into a shell as in the home turf of Congress veteran like Oommen Chandy, Ramesh Chennithala, Mullpally Ramachandran and BJP stalwarts like state President K.Surendran and the lone Kerala Union Minister V. Muraleedharan also saw the LDF emerging victorious.