E-Paper
Who makes up Kerala’s LDF? Key parties, history, and the road to the 2026 assembly elections
The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front has been in power in Kerala since 2016. The LDF secured 99 seats in 2021 to win a second consecutive term.
The Left Democratic Front is led by the Communist Party of India (M), which has been the ruling political alliance of Kerala since 2016. It is one of the two major political alliances in Kerala, the other being the United Democratic Front led by the Indian National Congress.
Kerala was the first state in India to have a non-Congress government, with a CPI government coming to power in 1957 in the Assembly elections. This was also the first election in Kerala after it became a separate state in 1956, with the States Reorganisation Act of 1956. Since then, in Kerala, politics is dominated by just two forces: the LDF, led by the CPI(M), and the UDF, led by the Congress, with power alternating between them. Today, in India, Kerala is the only state with a Left government in power.
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2026 Kerala Assembly Polls
The 2026 Kerala Assembly Elections were held in a single phase on April 9, while counting of votes will be done on May 4. Chief Minister and senior leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Pinarayi Vijayan, filed his nomination as the LDF candidate from the Dharmadam Assembly constituency in Kannur on March 19.
Till now, LDF has won a total of 6 elections out of 10 since the formation of the alliance in 1980. The alliance consists of CPI (M), CPI, and various smaller parties.
Historic Victory of LDF in Kerala
In the 2021 assembly elections, LDF made history by winning a second consecutive term, securing 99 seats with a 45.43% vote share, while UDF won 41 seats with 39.47% of the votes. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) received 12.4% of the vote but did not win any seats, something they hope to change this time. The CPI(M) alone secured 62 of the seats won by the LDF in 2021.
This was the first time since 1977 that a ruling alliance won consecutively in Kerala, and made Pinarayi Vijayan the first CM of Kerala to be re-elected after completing a full 5-year term in office. It broke the state’s long-standing trend of voters alternating between different governments in each election, making the victory especially remarkable.
The upcoming 2026 assembly polls might see the BJP as an emerging third player. While the party has just won one assembly seat in 2016, its recent political win- the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation in 2025 and the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat in 2024- shows the BJP’s growing influence in the state.
