DC Edit | Left Is Left Out in All States, UTs

The loss of the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front in the Kerala Assembly elections marks a historic moment in Left politics in India when there is no state in the country now where a communist party is part of the government. This is for the first time that the Left movement has landed in such a predicament in the last six decades.

The Left’s tryst with political power started in April 1957 when E.M.S. Namboodiripad was sworn in as chief minister of Kerala, heading a CPI ministry. It has been recorded as the first instance when a communist government assumed power through the ballot anywhere in the world. The state government was, however, dismissed two years later by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, using Article 356 of the Constitution. EMS returned to power 10 years later as the head of the first coalition ministry in the state. The Left was later elected to power in the state several times, and had a long run heading the governments in West Bengal and Tripura. It lost West Bengal in 2011 and Tripura in 2017. It is curious that the run now ends in Kerala where it all began.

Indeed, the Left in India managed to survive the eighties and nineties which saw communist governments all over the world crumble. It was not just the governments that vanished, most parties themselves disintegrated. However, the Indian versions adapted themselves to the local situations and remained relevant. The loss in West Bengal was a body blow to the CPI(M)-led Left Front in the state as today there is not even a distant hope that it will return to its previous position.

Tripura and Kerala scripted different stories, though, where the Left returned to power after being defeated.

The LDF remains a major political force in Kerala where it is likely to be back making use of the state’s revolving door policy. But until that happens, there will be no minister owing allegiance to the red flag at a time when the nation is increasingly saffron.