India Loses Its Last Left-Ruled State After Half a Century
Priyanka Shankar
Kerala, which hosted the world's first democratically elected communist government, has voted out the Left front, ending India's five-decade streak of having at least one leftist state government. The United Democratic Front won a decisive majority in the May 2021 elections. Analysts cite the Left's ideological dilution, limited outreach, and a national rightward shift as reasons for its decline, though some see potential for revival.
In the legislative assembly elections in Kerala on May 3, 2021, the United Democratic Front (UDF) alliance led by the Indian National Congress won or led in 98 of the 140 seats, while the Left Democratic Front (LDF) secured or led in only 35 seats. This result means the Left front lost power in Kerala, the last state in India governed by communist-led parties.
Kerala made history when the Communist Party of India (CPI) formed the world's first democratically elected government in April 1957. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru dismissed that administration in July 1959 following land and education reforms. Since 1977, at least one Indian state had always been ruled by the Left front, but that era has now ended.
Political scientist Rahul Verma, from the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) in New Delhi, noted: "This year's election results show that for the first time, the Left front might not be in power in any state."
The Left front previously governed West Bengal continuously from 1977 to 2011, Tripura from 1993 to 2018, and Kerala alternately with the UDF for decades before the LDF returned to power in 2016. In the national parliament, the Left's seat count has fallen from 62 in 2004 to just 8 now.
According to associate professor Rajarshi Dasgupta from Jawaharlal Nehru University, the Left's presence has always been limited to regions such as Kerala, Tripura, and West Bengal. "The broader cause is its limited engagement with issues of class, gender, and the changing nature of capitalism after liberalization," he said.
Harish Vasudevan, a lawyer and independent social activist, believes India's political trend is shifting rightward. "Moreover, the Left has partly lost its leftist ideology and compromised," he observed.
Although the LDF government under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was praised for its COVID-19 response and for eliminating extreme poverty by November 2020—making Kerala the first Indian state to achieve this—the LDF's popularity declined. "In Kerala, the LDF once played a rebellious role against abuse of power, but in the last five years they began speaking the language of power," Vasudevan said, adding that traditional voters cast their ballots against the LDF as a corrective measure.
Analysts say the Left front needs restructuring. Dasgupta pointed to a lack of imagination and a scarcity of young leaders. "However, there are signs of a revival of social democratic politics worldwide, and India is unlikely to remain immune. Issues such as rising inequality and jobless growth are worsening, and no mainstream party is addressing them except the Left. This makes a return of the Left quite possible, if it effectively reinvents itself from a 20th-century communist model into a social democratic force suited to 21st-century India," he concluded.
