The Liberal Democratic Party suffered a major loss in the June 22 Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election.

Before the election, the LDP had the most seats in the 127-seat assembly at 30.

But it fell to second place with the party's lowest-ever 21 seats, including its unofficial candidates who ran as independents due to a scandal involving improper reporting of revenue from political fundraising parties.

The outcome deals a blow to the ruling party in national politics as the local election is seen as a prelude to the House of Councillors election scheduled for this summer.

The LDP had hoped that its plan to pledge to give people 20,000 yen each and farm minister Koizumi Shinjiro's efforts to offer the government's stockpiled rice to the market would help the party in the Tokyo assembly election.

But the effects were limited.

A senior LDP member said there are voices expressing concern over battling the upper house election with Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru at the helm.

The largest number of seats went to Tomin First no Kai, also known as Tokyoites First party, for which Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko serves as special adviser.

Amid Koike's popularity, Tomin First garnered 31 seats, up from 26 before the election, to return to the top position among political parties in the metropolitan assembly.

This result is expected to bring more stability to Koike's administration of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

The Komeito party, the LDP's junior coalition partner in national politics, had seen all its candidates win in eight past assembly elections, but this time, three incumbents lost their seats, bringing the number down from 23 to 19.

Among parties opposing Koike, the Constitutional Democratic Party won 17 seats, five more than before.

A senior party member said the result was neither a victory nor a defeat for the largest opposition party on the national political stage.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party for the People, which was not represented in the assembly before the election, got nine seats.

While support for the emerging party has been on the decline, an executive noted that the downward trend likely hit bottom and that the outcome will give impetus to the party in the upper house election.

The voter turnout for the metropolitan assembly election was 47.59 percent, up 5.20 percentage points from the previous election.