The Left Democratic Front (LDF) has won a thumping majority in the assembly election of the state Kerala. LDF has won 99 out of 140 seats in the state's legislative assembly, the highest in their history. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has won 62 seats, despite contesting 7 fewer seats than the previous time. They were just short of 9 seats from having the single-party majority. The performance of the Communist Party of India was also remarkable. They won 17 out of 23 seats they contested. The Pinarayi Vijayan led Left Democratic Front stormed to power by breaking the state's 35 years old record. The LDF is the first incumbent government in the past four decades to come back to power. The mandate has proven the legitimacy of the developmental schemes and works of the same government in the past five years.
But what development are we referring to? As many analysts have opined, the developmental structure of the Left Democratic Government in Kerala has two shades. 1. Crisis Management. 2 Human Development. For the first case, the world is already aware of the crisis management methods that the LDF implied at the time of the Covid-19 crisis. It was the first state in India to start the Plasma treatment for the Covid affected patients. Secondly, Kerala was phenomenal in terms of rapid Covid testing. Excellent public health services, developed under the health minister K.K. Shailaja made their job quite easy. On the other hand, human development was the motto of the LDF government of the previous term. The government ensured an 18000 monthly salary for each of the workers both in the public and private sector. It opened up the facilities of provident funds for the workers, working in the state. Free health benefits, free medicines and free homes for the poor were the other services provided by the Left government in Kerala. In the time of Corona, the state implemented free vaccination for all. Again, the first state to do that in the whole country.
Besides all of these, there is a new reason behind the success of the LDF government in Kerala. The mixture of identity politics under the left umbrella. Kerala poses huge minority populations. Both Christian and Muslims. Both of these communities have backed the LDF as a strong force against the hinduwadi Bharatiya Janata Party. Vote shares of both of these communities for the LDF increased from previous terms. The Indian Union of Muslim League, the self spoken and acknowledged messiah of the Muslims in Kerala failed to draw an impact against the LDF in this election. Earlier both of these communities backed the Indian National Congress-led United Democratic Front. But this time, the situation seemed different. Both of these communities vouched for their opinion to rely on the Left, and the Left had earned the credit points.
In the time of hardship of the Left forces in the entire India, the Left Democratic Government stood firm. It created history, as well as set a new example for the Left politics in India. It followed the developmental modes of countries like Cuba. Human Development was the soul issue. It added new dimensions by drawing the multiple identities under one flagship. A flagship of the Left colour.
