There is a Left government in Kerala for the last 9 years. Despite all efforts, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) fell far short of a majority and Pinarayi Vijayan retained power. This time UDF is busy strengthening itself before the elections to be held in 2026. In this effort, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) has also joined this Congress-led alliance. Apart from TMC, some other parties have also joined UDF so that the scattering of votes can be prevented and apart from the ruling Left, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is presenting a new challenge, should also not be allowed to benefit.
UDF on Monday decided to expand its fold by including three more political parties including TMC. Speaking to reporters after the UDF meeting, Leader of Opposition in Kerala Assembly V D Satheesan said the Kerala unit of Trinamool Congress, Janadhipatya Rashtriya Party (JRP) led by tribal leader CK Janu and Vishnupuram Chandrasekaran-led Kerala Kamaraj Congress (KKC) will be allies of the UDF in the upcoming elections. Former MLA PV Anwar is leading the state unit of Trinamool Congress. CK Janu and Vishnupuram Chandrasekaran were formerly with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Later he broke ties with the alliance.
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What is UDF’s plan?
According to the UDF leadership, these leaders had expressed their willingness to join the opposition front to strengthen the fight against the ‘anti-people policies’ of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government. “When they approached us, the matter was discussed in two UDF meetings and a decision was taken,” Satheesan said. When asked about the role of CK Janu in the Muthanga movement against the former Congress government of Kerala, Satheesan said that the situation was different at that time.
He said, ‘Jaanu worked among the tribal community and emerged as their leader. Janu and his party wanted to work with UDF, so we decided to take them along. He said that the UDF is now focusing on the tribal community and their welfare. Former Nilambur MLA P V Anwar had recently parted ways with the LDF following public differences with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Satheesan said seat sharing would be discussed with UDF allies next month as part of preparations for the upcoming assembly elections.
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He also announced that the UDF would organize a rally from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram in February. Satheesan said that the UDF will neither cooperate with the LDF nor the NDA after the local body elections. Earlier, Kerala Congress (Joseph) president PJ Joseph said that strengthening the UDF does not mean including new parties in it. He was responding to a question about the possible return of Kerala Congress (Mani) to the UDF.
UDF’s morale is high
UDF had got tremendous success in the recently held Kerala civic elections due to which its allies are very excited. UDF won in 4 out of 6 municipal corporations, UDF won in 54 and LDF in 28 municipalities. At the same time, both the major alliances had won in 7-7 district panchayats. 79 block chiefs of UDF and 63 of LDF won the elections.
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Earlier, UDF had got a bumper victory in the Lok Sabha elections also. Of the 20 seats in Kerala, Congress contested 16 seats, Indian Union Muslim League contested 2 seats, Kerala Congress Joseph contested one seat and Revolutionary Socialist Party contested one seat. This alliance had demoralized the Left as well as the BJP. UDF had won 18 out of 20 seats. Congress had won 14, IUML 2, Kerala Congress 1 and RSP 1 seat. However, in 2019 also, UDF had won the Lok Sabha elections and LDF had won the assembly elections.
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