Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], May 4 : CPI Secretary for Kerala Binoy Viswam on Monday acknowledged the defeat of the Left Democratic Front in the 2026 Keralam Assembly elections, stating that the party will seriously reflect on the reasons behind the loss.
Speaking to ANI, he said "We were expecting a majority. But it was proven wrong. We will take our lessons from this defeat."
"There is no meaning in whitewashing it with some reasons that we can build up. There are reasons for this big failure that we faced as the Left and Communists into this defeat", he said.
As the results of the counting of votes came in, Keralam BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar earlier today said that this would be the first time in the history of the State that two MLAs will represent the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the State Assembly.
After 23 rounds of counting, Chandrasekhar was leading in the Nemom Assembly seat with 56721 votes, leading by 4978 votes over V Sivankutty's 51743 votes at 5 pm.
V Muraleedharan defeated V Sivankutty with a narrow lead in the Kazhakootam Assembly seat and B B Gopakumar won the Chathannoor seat as per the Election Commission.
The state BJP chief joined the celebration with the party workers at the BJP office in Keralam.
"It is for the first time that we are seeing that the party is being supported by the people across the board. We saw that in the local body elections, when the people of Thiruvananthapuram gave NDA the mandate to govern the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, and it follows from that that in these Assembly elections, there was a very strong anti-incumbency against the CPI (M). These elections were more about throwing out the CPI (M). We have put forth a very comprehensive vision for PM for development and opportunities for all Malayalis. We are very happy that there are two MLAs in the Keralam Assembly to represent the NDA and the people of Keralam for the first time in the history of the State. This will be the start of a new beginning for Keralam's development," he said.
"I am extremely happy, I am very proud and deeply grateful to all the workers of the BJP-NDA who have made this win possible. I am deeply grateful to the people of Nemom for having given me an opportunity to serve them," he said.
The Congress-led UDF has crossed the majority mark in the 140-member Assembly, with early trends showing it comfortably ahead of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) led by CPI(M). The verdict is being seen as a decisive rejection of the LDF's 10-year tenure, marked by anti-incumbency sentiment and governance concerns.