Assembly election results 2021: LDF's historic win in Kerala will break 40-year-old old trend

Kerala, known to change its government every five years for the past 40 years, voted Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) back to power for a second consecutive term, defeating the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and a disappointed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Sabarimala issue, the gold smuggling case implicating CM Vijayan and Kerala Assembly Speaker, along wiith other members of the government, and other allegations by the Opposition parties did not deter the LDFs path to a historic victory in the state.

Live coverage of Kerala Assembly election result 2021

While the counting is yet to conclude, figures at the time of writing this copy showed that the LDF led in 99 out of 140 seats in the Assembly, while UDF led in 41 seats.

CM Vijayan won comfortably in his home turf of Dharmadam, while Health Minister K K Shailaja was leading with a margin of over 60,000 votes. At least four Cabinet colleagues, including T P Ramakrishnan (Perambra), M M Mani (Udumbanchola), K Krishnankutty (Chittur) and Kadannappally Ramachandran (Kannur), have already ensured their victory, but the EC is yet to announce it officially. Minister A C Moideenand Kadakampally Surendran was leading, while their cabinet colleague J Mercykutty Amma was trailing right from the beginning.

In a press briefing after his victory, Vijayan said this is not the time to celebrate, but to fight Covid-19. But without missing the chance to comment on BJP's performance in the polls, he said, "The BJP had claimed a big victory this time saying that they will be forming a government. They even said they don't need the usual majority. That's when we said that the account they have, we will close. Big leaders including the Prime Minister campaigned. They spent a lot of money, too. But now, it's time for them to realise the reality of Kerala's speciality. Communalism will not work here like in some other states."

BJP's hopes dashed

The BJP, which had only one seat in the state to begin with, faced disappointment as all the constituencies it had its eyes on, failed the saffron party. In its lone seat of Nemom, BJP' Kummanam Rajasekharan is trailing by a wide margin. The saffron party's trump card in Palakkad, 'Metroman' E Sreedharan, also lost the seat by a considerable margin.

BJP's Suresh Gopi from Thrissur, who initially led from the seat, was pushed to the back by CPI and Congress candidates. State BJP President K Surendran also performed badly in the two seats he was fielded.