Pinarayi Vijayan, the defender of the country’s last Left bastion, has secured a historic consecutive term as Kerala chief minister, with the Left Democratic Front (LDF) winning 94 of the assembly’s 140 seats. Meanwhile, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) won 40 assembly seats. 

For those watching the BJP‘s attempts at making headway in Kerala, the party failed to win a single seat.

A party or alliance needs to win 71 of Kerala’s 140 assembly seats to form a government.

With the win, Vijayan will become the only chief minister in 50 years to win a second straight term, with power oscillating between the UDF and the LDF for the last four terms.  

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Vijayan’s Communitst Party of India (Marxist) has won 62 seats, with its LDF ally Communist Party of India winning 17. Meanwhile, the Congress has won 21 seats, with the Indian Union Muslim League winning 15 seats.

Also Read: Tamil Nadu election results: Edge for DMK, AIADMK distant second

In the last assembly elections in 2016, the LDF had won 91 seats and the UDF 41. The BJP had won a single seat and was hoping to better that this year. 2011 was closer, with the UDF scraping through to the majority at 72; the Left had won 68. 

A win today will be seen as a referendum for Pinarayi Vijayan, who fought off a gold smuggling scandal in his office and scored with his handling of the COVID pandemic. His daily briefings and minute-by-minute handling of the pandemic have earned him popularity. 

Also Read: Early trends: Mamata, BJP neck-and-neck in Bengal; DMK pulls ahead in Tamil Nadu

The Congress-led UDF hoped to replicate its success in the general elections two years ago, when it won 19 of Kerala’s 20 seats, making it the only state untouched by a massive BJP wave. It was also counting on Kerala’s record of not voting in the incumbent government. For decades Kerala has alternately picked the LDF or the UDF every five years. The Congress unleashed its entire top leadership of the state — Oommen Chandy, Ramesh Chennithala, Mullapally Ramachandran, Shashi Tharoor. The party’s ex-president Rahul Gandhi is an MP from Kerala’s Wayanad and that brought the central leadership’s focus on the state. 

The BJP set up its own front and was quite visible in campaigning. That however does not seem to be translating into votes.