CPI(M) sets poverty eradication as LDF’s central agenda ahead of the local body polls

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] on Sunday (November 2, 2025) signalled that eradicating poverty at the household level will be central to its campaign narrative for the upcoming local body elections.

CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan told a press conference that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) had eradicated extreme poverty. “Now, poverty eradication is the government’s top agenda. It would entail mitigating homelessness and the lack of livelihood, among other aggravating factors,” he added.

Mr. Govindan also dangled the prospect of increasing the monthly social welfare pension from ₹2,000 to ₹2,500 with the rider that the Union government end its “financial embargo” on Kerala and release the ₹2 lakh crore obligatory federal funds owed to the State.

Niti Aayog report

Mr. Govindan said as per Niti Aayog’s 2021 figures, an estimated 0.7% of Kerala’s population reeled under daily deprivations of poverty, including homelessness, livelihood means and other travails.

He stated that Niti Aayog reported in 2025 that Kerala’s multidimensional poverty had decreased to 0.7% of the population. “If LDF can eradicate extreme poverty, the goal of eliminating multidimensional poverty is easily within the State’s reach,” he said.

Mr. Govindan said Congress and BJP-ruled States might find the going difficult. For one, he said, in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, an estimated 28% of the population struggled under the poverty line.

He said the LDF did not eradicate poverty with the swish of a magic wand, as touted by Leader of the Opposition V D Satheesan.

All-out efforts

He said UDF-controlled district panchayats, Corporations, Municipalities and Grama Panchayats were at the forefront of the apolitical and bipartisan community effort, which involved lakhs of volunteers, including Kudumbashree workers, ASHAs, Anganwadi workers and residents’ association.

“In Ernakulam, the Congress-ruled district panchayat felt harried that it could not declare the district poverty eradicated because of the anomalies concerning an individual beneficiary. The Cabinet resolved the issue at a stroke, enabling Ernakulam, Leader of the Opposition’s home district, to join the November 1 declaration,” he added.

He said the LDF has brought nearly a crore of people, including agricultural workers, widows, senior citizens, transgender people, differently abled citizens, and economically underprivileged women aged 18 to 35 (an estimated 34 lakh citizens), as well as needy, educated job aspirants, under the State’s social welfare security net.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and LDF convenor T.P. Ramakrishnan attended the CPI(M) State secretariat and subsequent State committee meetings. Mr. Govindan said the meeting laid the road map for the LDF’s local body campaign in the final stretch before the election declaration.