No alliance with Congress to keep BJP out of power: CPI(M) chief M V Govindan

As the BJP emerged as the single largest party in one corporation and a municipality in the recently held local body elections in Kerala, two rival fronts, the UDF and the LDF, were said to have done a deal to join hands to keep the BJP out of power, but CPI(M) chief M V Govindan denied that any such move was taking place, instead saying the party would let the BJP come to power, siding with the voters’ verdict.

Following a meeting of the CPI(M) state secretariat to review the election outcome, Govindan made it clear that the party would not explore any post-poll arrangement with the Congress at the local level, despite both parties being constituents of the INDIA bloc nationally, as they continue to remain principal political adversaries in Kerala.

The BJP’s rise to the top position in the Thiruvananthapuram corporation and the Palakkad municipality has complicated traditional arithmetic, particularly because neither of the two dominant fronts has secured a clear majority on its own.

In Thiruvananthapuram, the BJP secured 50 wards, while the CPI(M) and the Congress together accounted for 48, with two independents holding the balance, whereas in the 53-member Palakkad municipal council, the BJP won 25 seats, matching the combined strength of the CPI(M), which secured eight seats, and the Congress, which won 17, with three independents emerging as potential kingmakers.

Although sections of the local leaderships within both the Congress and the CPI(M) were reported to be weighing the possibility of cooperation to prevent the BJP from forming administrations, the proximity of the Assembly elections, now barely four months away, appears to have deterred any formal alignment.

The emergence of smaller parties such as the Welfare Party of India and the Social Democratic Party of India is also critical for both fronts in forming local governance, as their numbers are key for both parties.

Govindan dismissed suggestions that the Left Democratic Front had suffered due to anti-incumbency, arguing that voting patterns in seven of the 14 district panchayats reflected clear ideological alignment rather than voter dissatisfaction.

He maintained that the party’s organisational base remained intact, while acknowledging that the CPI(M) would closely analyse setbacks in central Kerala, where Christian voters are influential, and in Malappuram, a Muslim-majority district.

Govindan also indicated that the party would review whether controversies such as the Sabarimala gold smuggling case had any bearing on the outcome, as the CPI(M) begins a detailed assessment of the electoral verdict ahead of the high-stakes Assembly election.