Apr 01, 2026 14:00 pm IST

Opinion | Why A 'Defeat' Is Now Essential For The Disoriented Left In Kerala

Power and arrogance have turned the Left in Kerala into what it once fought against. It now needs to lose its last bastion to cleanse itself of its maladies.

Anand Kochukudy Anand Kochukudy Columnist

Anand Kochukudy Columnist

An expression attributed to King Louis XV of France is "Après moi, le deluge" (After me, the deluge). Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's desperate attempts to cling to power with a public relations overdrive might be reminiscent of the nihilistic statement. For, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which the octogenarian has been leading since 1998 in Kerala, is showing clear signs of decay.

The undivided Communist Party, which came to power democratically in the first election held to the state Assembly in 1957, has been an integral part of Kerala politics ever since. However, unlike its uninterrupted 34-year stint in West Bengal, the Left had never managed to win a successive term in Kerala until 2021, when Vijayan managed to buck that trend. The initial euphoria notwithstanding, a section of the Left base in Kerala has been increasingly vocal about leaders getting drunk on power and using all means to perpetuate it.

In Gangster State: The Rise And Fall of the CPI-M in West Bengal, author Sourjya Bhowmick uses the iconic lines "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times" from Charles Dickens to describe the final term of the party in Bengal. He recalls how the party went from its peak to getting decimated in 2011, wondering if the youth were drawn to it due to ideology or were driven merely by power. Such a situation has also been brewing in Kerala for a while now, shaped by the trappings of........

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