Failure to read political trends and course correct in real time resulted in LDF’s defeat, feels CPI(M)

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The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State Committee has “self-critically acknowledged” that organisational failure to read the political trends for tactical course correction in real time on major issues and controversies that resonated with significant sections of the electorate caused the Left Democratic Front (LDF)’s defeat in the Assembly elections in Kerala.

CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan told a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday (June 9, 2026) that a tacit deal between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the hustings compounded the scale of the LDF’s rout.

Mr. Govindan noted that the BJP’s vote share had dwindled in 30 Assembly constituencies compared to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. “The BJP’s loss was clearly the Congress’s gain. The Congress reciprocated by channelling votes to the BJP to defeat the LDF in constituencies across the State, and ensured the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) win in three Assembly seats,” he said.

Mr. Govindan said that BJP State president Rajeev Chandrasekhar had implicitly acknowledged the “covert alliance” with the Congress by stating, after the polls, that his party’s primary goal was to defeat the LDF, not the United Democratic Front (UDF).

Mr. Govindan said the BJP succeeded to some extent in orchestrating a strategic polarisation of the majority community’s votes towards the politics of Hindutva by ratcheting up caste-identity politics.

Mr. Govindan said the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) inadvertently complemented the BJP’s Hindutva pitch by brazenly seeking votes on religious lines. “The IUML and Jamaat-e-Islami-Kerala’s unabashed falsehood that the Union government’s Special Intensive Revision of voters’ lists seeking to disenfranchise Muslims, especially in north Kerala, had the Pinarayi Vijayan government’s imprimatur resonated strongly among minority community voters in the region,” he said.

Mr. Govindan said the CPI(M)’s failure to “more forcefully call out” Sree Nara