Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress-led UDF was inching closer to a victory in Kerala, with leads in 95 of the state’s 140 seats, according to assembly election results declared till Monday afternoon.
The incumbent LDF was ahead in 43 seats, and the BJP-led NDA in two, data by the Election Commission showed.
The Indian Union Muslim League, the Congress’s largest ally in the state, was up in 23 of the 27 seats it contested. The Kerala Congress (Joseph) was leading in 7 of the eight seats, and the CPI, CPI(M)’s largest ally, was leading in nine of the 25 seats it fought on.
The result is a far cry from 2021 polls, when the ruling LDF retained power by securing 99 seats, up from the 91 it had won in 2016.
“This shows blatant discontent against the leadership. That could be the reason for this result,” said K.P. Sthunath, a political analyst based in Kerala.
Both the coalitions, the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), ran an intense campaign in the state in the run-up to the polls, with incumbent Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan leading the Left’s campaign for a third consecutive term.
The LDF focused its campaign on several welfare and infrastructure measures it rolled out over the past 10 years, including the widening of the NH-66, increasing the pension welfare amount, and the timely completion of the Wayanad rehabilitation project, pitching for continuity of the administration.
Meanwhile, the UDF attacked the Left on corruption. In its manifesto, the Congress mostly focused on employment generation, and ‘Indira guarantees’ that included welfare measures such as increasing the pension to Rs 3,000 and offering free bus rides for women.
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Anti-incumbency benefit
Coming close on the heels of the alliance’s impressive performance in the 2025 local body polls, the result is a testimony to the UDF benefiting from the anti-incumbency sentiment against the LDF and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, something that the UDF highlighted in their campaign.
The party also targeted the Left for the alleged understanding with the RSS, for retaining power in the State.
In the 2025 local body polls, the UDF won four of the six municipal corporations and secured victory in 54 of the 87 municipalities, seven of the 14 district panchayats, 79 of the 152 block panchayats, and 505 of the 941 village panchayats in the state.
The campaign and the UDF’s manifesto also focused on the migration of youngsters out of the state in search of jobs, the Sabarimala scandal, and issues such as the improvement of the health and education sectors. The results also underscore the continuing support of the minority Muslim and Christian communities to the UDF, which was witnessed during the local body polls, too.
As per the voter turnout, northern districts with significant minority population, such as Kozhikode, Malappuram and Kasaragod, had recorded a higher turnout in the polls.
However, the results lead to higher anxiety in the Congress camp, which has been seeing significant infighting among key leaders such as K.C. Venugopal, V.D. Satheesan, and Ramesh Chennithala for the chief ministerial post.
In the run-up to the polls, supporters of all the three leaders had demanded the post for their leaders.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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