Left Democratic Front Victory in Kerala’s Local Body Elections

The elections to local self-government institutions were held in Kerala in December 2020. The Left Democratic Front (LDF) led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist)—CPI(M)—has attained an impressive victory, surprising many observers of Kerala politics. The LDF got a clear majority in gram, block, and district panchayat levels, and in corporations. Even in municipalities, where the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) provided a stiff fight, the LDF got the better of its rivals. The performance of both the UDF and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was far short of their expectations. Moreover, the result demanded a thorough introspection of these fronts’ political strategy and method of function. These results offered a big relief and confidence booster to the LDF and Pinarayi Vijayan, chief minister of Kerala, in an extraordinarily difficult time.

The significance of this outcome lies in the elections to the state legislature in April 2021. Many observers consider this election as a semi-final that would indicate the possible outcome of the assembly elections. The experience of the last two decades shows that the alliance which attained an advantage in the elections for local bodies won the elections for state legislature too. Consequently, all political parties tirelessly worked to attain the best results in this election. In the above-mentioned context, this article tries to analyse the main factors that resulted in the overwhelming victory of the LDF in the local body elections.