India without Communist governments: Kerala assembly election defeat of LDF marks history. Here is why

Kerala's LDF, or the Left Democratic Front led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M), looks set to go out of power as the Congress-led UDF crossed the halfway mark in the assembly election's official trends on Monday (May 4). This is not just another election story as the United Democratic Front is poised to form the government in the south Indian state. When the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government exits, it would mark the first time since 1977 that no Indian state has a communist or Left-wing government.

India's tryst with communism in national politics

While it was never a national force electorally, the Communist Party of India (CPI) and its splinter group, CPI-M, which became bigger than its parent, were a much-valued alternative stream of politics in India. The fortunes of CPI-M, CPI and allied Left-of-centre parties waxed and waned over the years even as they became the voices of the working classes.

In 1996–1998 period, the CPI(M) provided external support to the United Front government led by Congress. The party's decision not to join the government was later described by its veteran leader Jyoti Basu as a 'Himalayan Blunder.

In 2004–2008, the CPI(M) provided external support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, having got its best-ever 43 seats in the 2004 national election. That period could be considered its national political peak, before the party withdrew support to the Congress-led government in protest against the US–India civilian nuclear deal, among other things.

State-level strongholds of Communists in India: Kerala, West Bengal, Tripura

At the state level, Communist governments were the strongest in West Bengal and Kerala.

Kerala has the unique distinction of having formed the world's first democratically elected Communist government, with EMS Namboodiripad as chief minister, in 1957. Since then, the state saw Communist governments alternating with the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) coalitions in practically every five-year terms. But that streak was broken in 2021, when the LDF was re-elected to power for a second straight term for the first time in the southern state's political history, under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

In West Bengal, the CPI-M-led Left Front had an unhindered reign for 34 years, from 1977 to 2011. Jyoti Basu was the Communist chief minister of the eastern state for over 23 years. This meant West Bengal hosted the longest democratically elected communist government in the world, before Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress trounced them at the hustings.

Tripura was another stronghold for the communists. The Left Front held power in the north-eastern state for 25 straight years, from 1993 until 2018.

What the future holds for communist governments in India

The Kerala assembly election might have created a situation of no communist governments in India for the first time since 1977, but going by the state's political history, LDF might come back when the next elections are held. In West Bengal, the Left never managed to rise up from the defeat of 2011, and is currently a marginalised force. The situation is not much different in Tripura, where the Left Front was defeated in the 2018 elections by the BJP-IPFT alliance.

There have been smaller or shorter spells of Left or communist presence in governments of other states, like Tamil Nadu and Bihar. The Left continues to have some influence in local bodies, trade unions, and a few parliamentary seats.
But the heydays of communist-led governments may be a thing of the past for India, at least for some more years to come.