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Left Democratic Front (Kerala)

Left Democratic Front ഇടതുപക്ഷ ജനാധിപത്യ മുന്നണി

LDF
Pinarayi Vijayan (Chief Minister of Kerala)
T. P. Ramakrishnan
K. Radhakrishnan
John Brittas
P. K. Vasudevan NairE. M. S. Namboodiripad
1979 (1979)
SocialismMarxismSecularism
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6 / 9
1 / 20
35 / 140
338 / 941
64 / 152
7 / 14
28 / 86
1 / 6
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The Left Democratic Front (LDF) is an alliance of left-wing political parties led by Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the Indian state of Kerala. It is currently the official opposition in Kerala Legislative Assembly since 2026. It is one of the two major political alliances in Kerala, the other being Indian National Congress–led United Democratic Front, each of which has been in power alternately for the last four decades. LDF has won the elections to the State Legislature of Kerala in the years 1980, 1987, 1996, 2006, 2016 and had a historic re-election in 2021 where an incumbent government was re-elected for the first time in 40 years. LDF has won 6 out of 10 elections since the formation of the alliance in 1980. The alliance consists of CPI(M), CPI and various smaller parties.

LDF has been in power in the State Legislature of Kerala under E. K. Nayanar (1980–81, 1987–91, 1996–2001), V. S. Achuthanandan (2006–11), Pinarayi Vijayan (2016–current). E. K. Nayanar served as the Chief Minister of Kerala for 11 years and later became the longest serving Chief Minister of Kerala.

The alliance led by Pinarayi Vijayan returned to power in 2016 Assembly Election winning 91 out of 140 seats and further increasing its tally to 99 seats in the 2021 Assembly Election. Pinarayi Vijayan became the first Chief minister of Kerala to be re-elected after completing a full term (five years) in office after a historic election in 2021 where an incumbent government was re-elected for the first time in 40 years.

1st cabinet ministry of Kerala led by E. M. S. Namboodiripad (1957)

The political scenario in Kerala (1957–1980) was characterized by continually shifting alliances, party mergers and splits, factionalism within the coalitions and within political parties, and the formation of a numerous splinter groups. 1957 Kerala Legislative Assembly election was the first assembly election in the Indian state of Kerala. The Communist Party of India won the election with 60 seats. The election led to the formation of first democratically elected communist government in India. A Communist-led government under E. M. S. Namboodiripad resulted from the first elections for the new Kerala Legislative Assembly in 1957, making him the first communist leader in India to head a popularly elected government. It was one of the first Communist governments to be democratically elected, after Communist successes in the 1945 elections in the Republic of San Marino, a microstate in Europe, and the 1946 Czechoslovak elections. The coalition politics of Kerala began with second election held to the state legislative assembly in 1960. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) first came into power in Kerala in 1967, under Seven party front, which was an alliance of CPI(M), CPI, IUML, and four other parties. In 1970's, the major political parties in the state were unified under two major coalitions, one of them led by Indian National Congress and Communist Party of India and the other by CPI(M).

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, two main pre-poll political alliances were formed: the Left Democratic Front (LDF), led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Party of India and the United Democratic Front (UDF), led by the Indian National Congress. These pre-poll political alliances of Kerala have stabilized strongly in such a manner that, with rare exceptions, most of the coalition partners stick their loyalty to the respective alliances (Left Democratic Front or United Democratic Front).

2nd Nayanar Ministry (1987)

LDF first came into power in 1980 election under the leadership of E. K. Nayanar sworn in as the Chief Minister of Kerala on 26 March 1980 for the first time in 1980. He formed government with the support of Congress (A) under A. K. Antony and Kerala Congress under K. M. Mani, Nayanar later became the longest serving Chief Minister of Kerala, ever since 1980 election, the power has been clearly alternating between the two alliances till the 2016. LDF has won 6 out of 10 elections since the formation of the alliance in 1980. Since 1980, none of alliances in Kerala has been re-elected till the 2016. The 1987, 1996 elections led E. K. Nayanar, and the 2006 elections led by V. S. Achuthanandan formed governments and completed their full terms but were not re-elected. In 2016, LDF won the 2016 election led by Pinarayi Vijayan and had a historic re-election in 2021 election where an incumbent government was re-elected for first time in 40 years. Pinarayi Vijayan is the first Chief minister of Kerala to be re-elected after completing a full term (five years) in office.

No	Portrait	Name	Year
	P. V. Kunjikannan	1980–1986
	T. K. Ramakrishnan	1986–1987
	M. M. Lawrence	1987–1998
	V. S. Achuthanandan	1998–2001
	Paloli Mohammed Kutty	2001–2006
	Vaikom Viswan	2006–2018
	A. Vijayaraghavan	2018–2022
	E. P. Jayarajan	2022–2024
	T. P. Ramakrishnan	2024–present

Kerala Unit Leader
Communist Party of India (Marxist)	Marxism-LeninismSocialismSecularismAnti-imperialism	M. V. Govindan
Communist Party of India	Marxism-LeninismSocialismSecularismAnti-imperialism	Binoy Viswam
Kerala Congress (M)	Democratic socialism	Jose K. Mani
Indian Socialist Janata Dal	Democratic socialism	Mathew T. Thomas
Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar)	Gandhian socialismSecularism	Thomas K. Thomas
Rashtriya Janata Dal	SocialismLeft-wing populism	M. V. Shreyams Kumar
Kerala Congress (B)	Democratic socialism	K. B. Ganesh Kumar
Indian National League	SecularismSocial justice	Ahamed Devarkovil
Congress (Secular)	Gandhian socialismSecularism	Kadannappalli Ramachandran
Janadhipathya Kerala Congress	Socialism	Antony Raju

The following are the associate member parties in LDF:

Revolutionary Socialist Party (Leninist)
Kerala Congress (Skaria Thomas)
National Secular Conference
Marxist-Leninist Party of India (Red Flag)
National League (leader – Abdul Wahab)
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Janathipathiya Samrakshana Samithy (Left)

No	Portrait	Name	Tenure	Total	Party	Ministry
	E. K. Nayanar(1919–2004)	25 January 1980	20 October 1981	1 year, 268 days	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	Nayanar I
26 March 1987	24 June 1991	4 years, 90 days	Nayanar II
20 May 1996	17 May 2001	4 years, 362 days	Nayanar III
	V. S. Achuthanandan(1923–2025)	18 May 2006	18 May 2011	5 years, 0 days	Achuthanandan
	Pinarayi Vijayan(b. 1945)	25 May 2016	19 May 2021	9 years, 345 days	Pinarayi I
20 May 2021	Incumbent	Pinarayi II

No	Portrait	Name	Tenure	Total	Party	Ministry
	E. M. S. Namboodiripad(1909–1998)	5 April 1957	31 July 1959	2 years, 117 days		Communist Party of India	Namboodiripad I
6 March 1967	1 November 1969	2 years, 240 days		Communist Party of India (Marxist)	Namboodiripad II
	C. Achutha Menon(1913–1991)	1 November 1969	3 August 1970	275 days	Communist Party of India	Achutha Menon I
4 October 1970	25 March 1977	6 years, 172 days	Achutha Menon II
	P. K. Vasudevan Nair(1926–2005)	29 October 1978	12 October 1979	348 days	Vasudevan Nair

.mw-parser-output .tooltip-dotted{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}No.	Political alliance	Total days in governance	Number of Chief ministers
LDF		9463 days	3
UDF		7,295 days	3

Election Year	Leader	Seats won	Change
E. K. Nayanar	93 / 140	New	Government, later Opposition
63 / 140	30	Opposition
78 / 140	15	Government
48 / 140	42	Opposition
80 / 140	32	Government
V. S. Achuthanandan	40 / 140	40	Opposition
98 / 140	58	Government
68 / 140	30	Opposition
Pinarayi Vijayan	91 / 140	23	Government
99 / 140	8	Government

Election	Seats won	RulingCoalition	Majority
93	46	1	LDF	47
14
17
40
21
59
56
4
44
58

Election Year	Legislature	Seats won / contested	Change in seats	Total votes	Per. of votes
7th Lok Sabha	12 / 20	12	N/A	N/A	N/A
8th Lok Sabha	2 / 20	10	4,607,568	42.24%	N/A
9th Lok Sabha	3 / 20	1	6,370,627	42.93%	0.70%
10th Lok Sabha	4 / 20	1	6,446,253	44.28%	1.35%
11th Lok Sabha	10 / 20	6	6,469,266	44.87%	0.59%
12th Lok Sabha	9 / 20	1	6,628,189	44.55%	0.32%
13th Lok Sabha	9 / 20		6,713,244	43.70%	0.85%
14th Lok Sabha	18 / 20	9	6,962,151	46.15%	2.45%
15th Lok Sabha	4 / 20	14	6,717,418	41.89%	4.26%
16th Lok Sabha	8 / 20	4	7,211,257	40.12%	1.77%
17th Lok Sabha	1 / 20	7	7,156,387	36.29%	3.83%
18th Lok Sabha	1 / 20		6,590,526	33.34%	2.95%

Corporation	Election Year	Seats won/Total seats	Sitting side
Thiruvananthapuram Corporation	2025	29 / 100	Opposition
Kozhikode Municipal Corporation	35 / 75	Government
Kochi Municipal Corporation	20 / 74	Opposition
Kollam Municipal Corporation	16 / 55	Opposition
Thrissur Municipal Corporation	11 / 55	Opposition
Kannur Municipal Corporation	15 / 55	Opposition

The LDF is the ruling alliance in Kerala which has 99 seats out of the 140 in the Kerala Niyamasabha.

Map of Kerala showing 2021 State Legislative Assembly Election Results

No.	Party	Current No. of MLAs in Assembly
1	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	62
2	Communist Party of India	17
3	Kerala Congress (M)	5
4	Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar)	2
5	Janata Dal (Secular)	2
6	Kerala Congress (B)	1
7	Rashtriya Janata Dal	1
8	Indian National League	1
9	Congress (Secular)	1
10	Janadhipathya Kerala Congress	1
11	National Secular Conference	1
12	LDF Supported Independents	4
	Total Seats	98

The following list shows the MLAs belonging to LDF in the Niyamasabha.

Key

CPI(M) CPI KC(M) JD(S) RJD NCP-SP

INL KC(B) Cong(S) RSP(L) NSC

Independent

Keys:

CPI(M) (3)

CPI (2) KC(M) (1)

#	Name	Term start	Term end
1	A. A. Rahim	CPM	03-Apr-2022	03-Apr-2028
2	V. Sivadasan	CPM	24-Apr-2021	23-Apr-2027
3	John Brittas	CPM	24-Apr-2021	23-Apr-2027
4	P. Santhosh Kumar	CPI	03-Apr-2022	03-Apr-2028
5	P. P. Suneer	CPI	02-Jul-2024	01-Jul-2030
6	Jose K Mani	KC(M)	02-Jul-2024	01-Jul-2030

CPI(M) (1)

#	Constituency	Name	Party
Alathur (SC)	K. Radhakrishnan		Communist Party of India (Marxist)

The Left Democratic Front (LDF), who also forms the state government, won in more than half of all gram panchayats and block panchayats, two-thirds of district panchayats and in five out of six municipal corporations.

Local self-government body	Local Bodies in lead	Total

Gram Panchayats	514	321	42	64
Block Panchayats	108	38	0	6
District Panchayats	11	3	0	0
Municipalities	43	41	2	0
Corporations	5	1	0	0

Local self-government body	Local Bodies won	Total

Gram Panchayats	549	365	14	13
Block Panchayats	90	61	0	1
District Panchayats	7	7	0	0
Municipalities	44	41	1	0
Corporations	4	2	0	0

On 7 December 2011, the LDF organized a 208 km human wall demanding the construction of a new dam in place of the present 115-year leaky dam at Mullapperiyar. The human wall was the second-longest of the kind in Kerala which stretched across two districts.

LDF launched its website ahead of 2011 Kerala Assembly Election.

Communist Party of India (Marxist), Kerala
Communism in Kerala
United Front (1967–1969, Kerala)
Left Front (West Bengal)
Politics of Kerala
United Democratic Front (Kerala)
Political parties in Kerala
List of communist parties in India
Chief Ministers, Ministers, and Leaders of Opposition of Kerala (PDF), Thiruvananthapuram: Secratriat of Kerala Legislature, 2018
Official website for election Results
LDF Keralam

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