He leads the Left Democratic Front Communist Party of India (M), the ruling political alliance in 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 the CPI government coming to power in 1957 in Kerala. Assembly elections. These were also the first elections in Kerala after it became a separate state in 1956, with the States Reorganization Act of 1956. Since then, in Kerala, only two forces have dominated politics: the Liberal Democratic Front, led by the Communist Party of India (Maoist), and the United Democratic Front, led by the Congress, with power alternating between them. Today, in India, Kerala is the only state that has a leftist 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 the counting of votes will take place on May 4. Prime Minister and senior leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Pinarayi Vijayan, filed his nomination as the LDF candidate from Dharmadam Assembly constituency in Kannur on March 19.
So far, the LDF has won a total of 6 out of 10 elections since the alliance was formed in 1980. The alliance consists of CPI(M), CPI, and several smaller parties.
LDF’s historic victory in Kerala
In the 2021 Assembly elections, the LDF made history by winning a second consecutive term, winning 99 seats with 45.43% of the votes, while the United Democratic Front won 41 seats with 39.47% of the votes. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) received 12.4% of the votes but did not win any seats, something they are hoping to change this time. The CPI(Maoist) alone accounted for 62 of the seats won by the LDF in 2021.
This was the first time since 1977 that the ruling alliance had won consecutively in Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan is the first Chief Minister of Kerala to be re-elected after completing a full term of 5 years. This broke the state’s trend of alternating electors between different governments at each election, making the victory particularly notable.
The next polls may see 2026 BJP as an emerging third player. While the party has just won one Assembly seat in 2016, its recent political wins – Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation in 2025 and Thrissur Lok Sabha seat in 2024 – show the BJP’s growing influence in the state.
