Continuity of Government Is a New Challenge for the Kerala Left
Contestation â of policies, practices, socio-cultural mores, and of course state power â ought to be the rule, and meaningful consensus can only ever be a temporary cessation.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his Council of Ministers during the swearing-in ceremony, in Thiruvananthapuram, Thursday, May 20, 2021. Photo: Twitter/CMOKerala
Politics6 hours ago
The swearing-in of the second Pinarayi Vijayan government on May 20 has marked a new chapter in Keralaâs electoral history. For the first time in four decades, the south Indian state has broken with its tradition of alternating power between two opposing coalitions, i.e., the LDF (Left Democratic Front) led by the CPI(M) (Communist Party of India [Marxist]) and the UDF (United Democratic Front) led by the Congress party. The emphatic re-election of the Left government has defused what might have been the single most important factor in Keralaâ
Kerala uses tracking of patients and supplies, a network of health care workers and coronavirus “war rooms” to succeed where the national government has fallen short.
If Pinarayi Vijayan was duly rewarded as an individual for the LDF's unprecedented victory in Kerala, then why was the same principle not applied to its erstwhile health minister, K.K. Shailaja?
Here s Why Pinarayi Vijayan Can t Be Called a Modi in a Mundu
Going by classical definitions, the chief minister is far from being an autocrat. What saves him is the Left s deeply embedded corrective mechanism.
Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan at an election rally. Photo: Twitter/@CPIMKerala
Politics6 hours ago
The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front is set to retain power in Kerala, with the trends projecting it as leading or having won at least 94 of the 140 assembly seats.
The LDF victory will curb a four decade-old trend of the state electing communist and Congress-headed governments alternatively.
Two years ago, soon after the Left Front suffered a stunning defeat in the 2019 parliamentary elections, prominent Malayalam daily