Thiruvananthapuram: After months of dilly-dallying and cover-up following the devastating electoral defeat in Kerala, the CPI(M) has officially admitted that crafting a campaign centred excessively around former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for a hat-trick win was a strategic misstep.
This is the key finding of the election review by the CPI(M) state committee, published on the party’s official website after being endorsed by the Central Committee.
Significantly, the publication of the report marks a deviation from the CPI(M)’s time-honoured practice of keeping key internal documents confidential, apparently reflecting the intense pressure building within the party to confront the reality starkly.
Pointing out that the party’s vote share in the 2026 Assembly elections fell to its lowest level in 40 years, the report went on to make the self-critical admission that, “This is a matter of serious concern that shows the gravity of the defeat suffered by the party and the LDF.”
A key finding of the report, adopted after threadbare discussions in the state committee and at lower tiers of the party, is that “personalising” the campaign around Pinarayi Vijayan backfired, suggesting that this went against the party’s time-honoured practice of fighting elections on core political values and a people-centric narrative.
“A narrative was prevalent that the entire campaign revolved around one person… By personalising the campaign and centring it around Com. Pinarayi Vijayan, we unwittingly gave an opportunity to the UDF to conduct a targeted campaign against him. Consequently, we lost the political initiative to expose the reactionary, ruling-class bias of the Congress party and the UDF,” it said.
The report also highlighted the political consequences of drifting away from the party’s basic commitment to the working class, which resulted in substantial vote loss and the estrangement of core sections that had always stood with the party.
“A section of our basic classes — workers, agricultural workers and poor peasants — did not vote for us in these elections. This was visible in the decrease in vote share from our traditional sectors and strongholds,” it noted.
Another serious lapse was the lack of effective party-government coordination, unlike during the party’s earlier stints in power. This apparently means that the party did not have much control over governance and there had been an unchecked concentration of power in the hands of the Chief Minister and his office.
The report also held that party leaders and ministers should have been a little more guarded in their public engagements to avoid creating the impression of arrogance through their words and actions.
“Certain avoidable responses of leading comrades on a few occasions provided the opportunity for the anti-Left media and their political masters to carry out a negative campaign,” it notes.
It also cited a host of other reasons for the defeat, including the “malicious propaganda” mounted by the Congress-led UDF and the BJP to prevent the LDF from securing a third consecutive victory on the strength of its performance.
Still, the party acknowledged that “political, administrative and organisational factors” contributed to the LDF’s defeat.
The lapses on the party’s side included the failure to properly explain to the electorate the limitations under which the government functioned. Instead, the campaign was built around the notion that voters could be hoodwinked by creating an illusion about the success of the government’s developmental and welfare programmes without reinforcing this narrative with hard political arguments.
Interestingly, one of the political missteps cited was the reading out of the message of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at the Global Ayyappa Sangamam held in Pampa. This turned out to be “a major embarrassment to the Party’s secular image and had an adverse impact on our election campaign.”
Citing the growing clout of the RSS and the BJP in the state as a serious concern, the report called for special intervention to resist the activities of the Sangh Parivar, particularly among youth and women.
Clueless on Corrective Steps
Even though the report is marked by its openness, it failed to spell out the corrective steps needed to revitalise the party following the political crisis triggered by the defeat.
No time frame has been set for the higher organisational apparatus to act upon the findings.
According to party sources, an inclusive plenum-like session is likely to be held in September to undertake a thorough review of the entire gamut of issues and possibly come out with concrete decisions to reconfigure the organisation. Apart from the state committee and secretariat members, leading comrades from various organisational tiers and feeder outfits are likely to be invited to the session.
Vijayan Unlikely to Be Removed as Opposition Leader
Though the party report pointed out the consequences of a personality cult, Pinarayi Vijayan is unlikely to be removed as Opposition Leader in the near future. Although his authority has been shaken, the party does not have a suitable replacement, as things stand now. It may take some time, and a deep internal churn, for a new leader to emerge.
