LDF has the political heft to return to power in 2026, says Govindan

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretariat on Monday countered the narrative of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, in the aftermath of the local body poll results, comparing the Left Democratic Front to a ‘sinking ship’ floundering to stay politically afloat in the run-up to the 2026 Assembly elections. 

After a preliminary post-poll stocktaking at the AKG Centre here, CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan said the LDF possessed the political heft to retain power for a third consecutive term in the 2026 Assembly polls. He denied that the local body polls’ outcome was a verdict against the government. “The LDF remains the dominant force in 58 Assembly constituencies. It retains a fighting chance to win back those lost to the UDF by a relatively narrow margin. There is no anti-incumbency wave as touted by the Opposition,” he said. 

On Kerala Congress (M)

Mr. Govindan denied that UDF’s “overtures” to Kerala Congress (M) and other minor allies had rendered the ruling alliance shaky. “The LDF’s unity will endure transient triumphs and setbacks,” he stated. 

Mr. Govindan countered the UDF’s take that the CPI(M) had experimented with ‘Left Hindutva’ by courting “Muslim-baiting” Hindu leaders. (Notably, the UDF had bandied around the term at the hustings as an euphemistic political coinage to portray LDF’s criticism of the ‘revanchist’ drift in the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leadership and its ‘Congress-backed affinity’ towards the ‘Islamist’ Jamaat-e-Islami as patently anti-Muslim and pro-Hindutva). “The LDF polled 10 lakh votes in Malappuram,” Mr. Govindan underscored. 

Mr. Govindan dismissed as mere hyperbole the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) claim that it had become a winning alliance in Kerala. He said the NDA registered a modicum of success with the UDF’s help in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. However, the alliance made no impact in the district panchayat polls. The NDA won just a single district panchayat seat in Kasaragod. 

Sabarimala gold theft

Mr. Govindan denied that the Sabarimala gold theft scandal and the contentious Global Ayyappa Sangamam in September had pushed the Hindutva agenda, arguably dormant since the emotive Save Sabarimala Campaign in 2018, to the centre of the election debate, catalysing communally coloured identity politics and relegating other issues, including livelihood matters, welfare, and development, to the back-burner. 

“Sabarimala and Ayyappa faith scarcely benefited the Hindutva forces. The LDF wrested the Pandalam muncipality, a region that lies at the heart of the Sabarimala lore, from the NDA. The BJP lost the Sabarimala ward and the panchayats of Kulanada, Cherukol, and Mutholi in the Ayyappa heartland to the LDF. The NDA’s bid to wrest control of the temple cities, chiefly Guruvayur, Kodungaloor, Taliparamba, Thrissur and Parassini Kadavu, failed,” he stated.