India's Left parties face first stateless era in 50 years as Kerala trends against LDF
India's Left parties are confronting the real possibility of being out of power in every Indian state for the first time in more than five decades, as early counting trends in Kerala show the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) significantly ahead of the incumbent Left Democratic Front (LDF) led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. If confirmed, this would mark the first time since approximately 1970 that no Left party holds office in any Indian state.
A Political Force That Once Shaped National Destiny
To grasp how far the Left has fallen, it is worth recalling the heights it once occupied. In the country's first general elections of 1951–52, the Communist Party of India (CPI) emerged as the largest opposition group in Parliament. In 1957, Kerala made global history when it elected the world's first Communist government through a democratic process.
By 1996, veteran CPI-M leader Jyoti Basu — who had already served as Chief Minister of West Bengal for two decades — came within reach of the Prime Minister's office as part of the United Front coalition. His party's Politburo declined the proposal, a decision Basu later famously called a
