The CPI-M has acknowledged that its Kerala Assembly election campaign focused too heavily on then Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The party said this approach accidentally enabled opponents to shift the election’s focus from a political debate into a personal rivalry, overshadowed policy debates, and led to a disconnect between the party leadership and grassroots, resulting in a loss of faith among voters and cadres.
This admission is contained in the party’s “Review of Assembly Election Results,” which was finalised during the Central Committee meeting on July 11–13, 2026, following detailed deliberations by the Kerala state committee and state secretariat.
“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 have lost the political initiative to expose the reactionary, ruling class bias of the Congress party and the UDF,” the review report said.
“The focus of the campaign on development and welfare, without putting politics to the fore, was not effective. We should never forget that unless we integrate development and welfare policies with a political campaign against neoliberal and corporate-communal policies, we cannot expect the people to support us,” the report further says.
The review blamed the state leadership for poor candidate selection, particularly in CPI-M strongholds such as Taliparamba and Payyannur, where Congress-backed rebels won. It stated that top leaders failed to foresee the negative impact of their choices or fix them quickly. Consequently, the state leadership, not just district committees, must take responsibility for these candidate flaws and the lack of women, youth, and minority representation.
According to the review, uncountered allegations of a secret pact between the CPI-M and the BJP damaged support among minorities and shifted a segment of their votes away from the LDF.
The report highlighted weak party-government coordination as a key reason for the LDF’s election loss. It pointed out that earlier Left governments maintained closer ties by using sub-committees to monitor welfare schemes and cabinet committees to advise ministers. The document stated that these structures successfully minimised administrative errors and shielded the party’s political stance from criticism by both allies and rivals.
Although the election campaign effectively illuminated the LDF administration’s accomplishments, it fell short of articulating the structural constraints imposed by the prevailing federal framework, it said.
According to the report, the party blundered by permitting a minister to read a message from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during last year’s LDF-organized Global Ayyappa Sangamam. Sharing a statement from a prominent Hindutva leader severely damaged the party’s secular reputation and hindered its election campaign. The report questioned both the decision to request the message and a party minister agreeing to read it, noting that the incident mistakenly signalled to the public that the party was compromised by Hindutva communalism.