CPI(M) review says ‘personalising’ campaign around Pinarayi Vijayan weakened political initiative in 2026 Kerala Assembly polls

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] review of the 2026 Kerala Assembly Election results pointed out that “personalising the (poll) campaign and centring it solely around” former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan were among the several “political factors” that cost the Left Democratic Front (LDF) its campaign “initiative” in the polls. 

The review, published online on Monday (July 27, 2026), recorded that the “individualisation” fuelled the narrative that the CPI(M) campaign “revolved around one person”, and rendered the party ineffective in politically exposing the “reactionary, ruling class bias of the Congress party and the United Democratic Front (UDF).” The CPI(M)’s electoral tack also rendered Mr Vijayan the focus of a targeted vilification campaign by opponents, it noted.

The review noted that the CPI(M)’s “disproportionate stress” on the social capital generated by the previous LDF government’s development and welfare policies hamstrung the party from garnering popular support by aggressively pushing its “anti-corporate, anti-communal and anti-neoliberal” politics to the fore of the election campaign. 

The review stated that the ensuing deficiency of a “strong political campaign” hobbled the party from effectively countering the Congress-Jamaat-e-Islami-Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) campaign that the CPI(M) had struck a “secret deal” with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The UDF’s campaign “influenced and misled some sections of the Christian minority into joining the reactionary gang-up against the LDF”. 

The review flagged that a party minister’s declamation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister’s (Yogi Adityanath) “solicited message” at the Travancore Devaswom Board-organised Global Ayyappa Sangamam “was a major embarrassment to the party’s secular image and harmed the CPI(M)’s election campaign”. The document termed the UP Chief Minister an “avowed Hindu fanatic”. It said the Minister’s “act sent a wrong message to the people and conveyed an impression that we [CPI(M)] are soft towards Hindutva communal forces”. 

The review “self-critically noted” that the CPI(M) State secretariat’s condemnation of the “anti-Muslim utterances of Vellappally Natesan (SNDP Yogam general secretary) was not a strong response and created the wrong impression that the party was “compromised in its fight against Hindu majoritarian communalism.”

Critical of CPI on PM-SHRI

The CPI(M) review was critical of the Communist Party of India’s (CPI) decision to rake up the PM-SHRI controversy (a federal funding programme for school education widely criticised as pro-Hindutva) on the eve of the declaration of the Assembly elections. The Central committee noted that the CPI’s (anti-PM-SHRI) stance gave a leg-up to the UDF’s propaganda campaign that an “undercurrent exists” between the CPI(M) and the BJP. 

The review recorded that the CPI(M) failed to take “LDF partners into confidence on such matters”. Moreover, the UDF “exploited the lack of consensus” within the LDF (on PM-SHRI) to push its narrative that the CPI(M) had a “secret deal” with the BJP. 

The Central Committee obliquely criticised the previous dispensation by underscoring that “earlier (LDF) governments had CPI(M) sub-committees in place, including a “cabinet fraction” committee to address political issues, monitor the administration’s flagship schemes and pre-empt mistakes that could empower opponents to “question our politics”. 

The review warned against “heedlessness” on the part of leaders when addressing the media or the public. “Certain avoidable responses on the part 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”, the review noted.