Political parties in Kerala
Overview of the political parties in Kerala
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kerala's major political parties are aligned under two coalitions, namely the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) since the late 1970s. Kerala was the first Indian state to have coalition government as early as 1961 .[3]
Kerala Legislative Assembly Keralam Niyamasabha | |
|---|---|
| 15th Kerala Assembly | |
| Structure | |
| |
Political groups | Government (98)
Opposition (41) Vacant (1) |
Pre-poll alliances
State-level alliances
The Left Democratic Front (LDF), also known as Left Front (Kerala), is an alliance of left-wing political parties in the state of Kerala, India. It is the current ruling political alliance of Kerala, since 2016.[5] 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.[6] LDF has won the elections to the State Legislature of Kerala in the years 1980,[7] 1987,[8] 1996,[9] 2006,[10] 2016[11] and had a historic re-election in 2021[12] where an incumbent government was re-elected for first time in 40 years.[13] 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.[14]
LDF has been in power in the State Legislature of Kerala under E. K. Nayanar (1980–1981, 1987–1991, 1996–2001),[15] V. S. Achuthanandan (2006–2011),[16] Pinarayi Vijayan (2016–current).[17] E. K. Nayanar served as the Chief Minister of Kerala for 11 years and later became the longest serving Chief Minister of Kerala.[18]
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.[19]
The United Democratic Front (UDF) is the Indian National Congress-led alliance of centre to centre-right political parties in the Indian state of Kerala.[21] It is one of the two major political alliances in Kerala, the other being Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front, each of which has been in power alternately since 1980 E. K. Nayanar ministry.[22]
United Democratic Front was created by the Indian National Congress (then known as Congress-Indira) party leader K. Karunakaran in 1979, as a successor to the existing Congress-led alliance.[23] The alliance first came to power in 1981 (K. Karunakaran ministry) and has won elections to the state legislature of Kerala in the years 1982 (Karunakaran ministry),[24] 1991 (Karunakaran and A. K. Antony ministries),[25] 2001 (Antony and Oommen Chandy ministries),[26] and 2011 (Oommen Chandy ministry).[27] The alliance currently acts as the opposition in the state legislature of Kerala (after the 2021 legislative assembly election). United Democratic Front leaders V. D. Satheesan and Sunny Joseph currently serves as the Leader of the Opposition and Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee President respectively.[28]
The alliance currently consists of Indian National Congress, Indian Union Muslim League, Kerala Congress (Joseph), Kerala Congress (Jacob), Revolutionary Socialist Party and a variety of other smaller parties. The alliance follows big tent policy and includes a variety political parties.
- National Democratic Alliance[29]
National-level alliances
National parties
| Political party | Abbr. | Flag | Electoral symbol | Political position | Founded | Founder | KL unit leader | Alliance | Seats | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lok Sabha | Rajya Sabha | Kerala Legislative Assembly | |||||||||||
| Communist Party of India (Marxist) | CPIM |  |
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Left-wing | 7 November 1964 | E. M. S. Namboodiripad | M. V. Govindan | LDF | 1 / 20 |
4 / 9 |
61 / 120 | ||
| Indian National Congress | INC |  |
 |
Centre to Centre-left | 28 December 1885 | Allan Octavian Hume | Sunny Joseph | UDF | 14 / 20 |
1 / 9 |
20 / 140 | ||
| Bharatiya Janata Party | BJP |  |
 |
Right to Far-right | 6 April 1980 | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | Rajeev Chandrashekhar | NDA | 1 / 20 |
0 / 9 |
0 / 140 | ||
| Aam Aadmi Party | AAP |  |
 |
Centre | 26 November 2012 | Arvind Kejriwal | P. C. Cyriac | N/A | 0 / 20 |
0 / 9 |
0 / 140 | ||
| Bahujan Samaj Party | BSP |  |
 |
Centre | 14 April 1984 | Kanshi Ram | Advocate Pralhadan | N/A | 0 / 20 |
0 / 9 |
0 / 140 | ||
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