CPI(M) central panel faults Vijayan-centric campaign, leadership lapses in Kerala defeat

Thiruvananthapuram: In a candid post-election review, the CPI(M) Central Committee has identified a campaign centred excessively around former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, perceptions of arrogance and nepotism, minority alienation, and a growing disconnect with the grassroots as the principal reasons behind the Left Democratic Front’s worst electoral defeat in Kerala in four decades.

The review, adopted after examining the Kerala unit’s assessment of the 2026 Assembly election setback, marks the party leadership’s strongest acknowledgement yet that internal political, organisational and administrative shortcomings played a decisive role in the LDF’s collapse from 99 seats in 2021 to 35 seats in 2026. The CPI(M)’s own tally fell sharply from 64 to 26 seats, with its vote share dropping to 21.77 per cent, the party’s lowest in the state in four decades.

The most politically significant finding is the party’s acknowledgement that the campaign became excessively personalised around Pinarayi Vijayan.

While describing him as an efficient Chief Minister, the Central Committee says making the election revolve around one individual enabled the UDF to launch a focused attack on him, causing the Left to lose the political initiative.

Instead of confronting the Congress and the BJP on ideological and policy issues, the party found itself defending one leader throughout the campaign.

The review is equally unsparing about the erosion of the party’s public image. It admits that perceptions of arrogance, corruption, nepotism and affluent lifestyles among a section of leaders and cadre damaged the CPI(M)’s credibility.

Delays in taking disciplinary action against leaders facing serious allegations, irregularities in cooperative institutions and allegations of favouritism in candidate selection further reinforced these perceptions, the report says.

Another major admission concerns the alienation of minority communities.

The Central Committee acknowledges that controversies surrounding the reading of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s message at the Global Ayyappa Sangamam, the party’s weak response to Vellappally Natesan’s anti-Muslim remarks and the handling of the PM-SHRI issue created an impression that the CPI(M) was soft towards Hindutva forces.

The report says these developments adversely affected the party’s secular image and enabled the UDF to consolidate sections of minority voters.

Perhaps the most damaging finding is the acknowledgement that the party had gradually lost touch with its own social base.

The review admits that mass organisations became weak, ministers were increasingly seen as inaccessible, cadre depended excessively on the bureaucracy instead of taking up people’s grievances, and traditional supporters, including workers, agricultural labourers and poor peasants, drifted away.

The leadership also failed to gauge the depth of public resentment over unresolved issues ranging from pension arrears and cooperative sector problems to the wild elephant menace.

The report goes a step further, conceding that the widening gap between the leadership and the grassroots resulted in a serious misreading of public mood.

So deep was the disconnect, it says, that the party failed to anticipate the scale of the electoral backlash because people were no longer candid even with its own cadre.

While reiterating that the BJP-led Union government, the Congress, corporate media and communal forces created an adverse political climate, the Central Committee leaves little doubt that the decisive reasons for the LDF’s defeat lay within the party itself.

Significantly, many of the shortcomings now formally acknowledged are the very issues the Kerala leadership had consistently rejected during the campaign, making the review less a routine post-election exercise than a belated admission that the warning signs had been ignored until after the electorate had delivered its verdict.

Attention is now shifting to the CPI(M)’s extended state committee meeting scheduled in Kozhikode in September, where discussions are expected to focus on organisational restructuring and whether a leadership change is required in the aftermath of the electoral setback.

–IANS