Kerala Elections: The Defection Map

In the weeks leading up to the announcement of Kerala’s election schedule on 15 March, a quiet migration was underway—not across the Arabian Sea, but across party lines. The Left Democratic Front (LDF), which won 99 of 140 seats in 2021, is losing leaders at a rate that suggests something deeper than personal ambition: it suggests a reading of the political wind. The defections are not random. They are concentrated, targeted, and tell a story about the state of Kerala’s three political fronts as the 9 April election approaches.Kerala Polls: Pinarayi Vijayan's Control Is Costing Him the NarrativeThe most consequential departure is CC Mukundan, the Communist Party of India (CPI)’s sitting MLA from Nattika. Mukundan was expelled from the party after publicly accusing the CPI of running a “payment seat”—alleging that former MLA Geetha Gopi was being fielded in his place because she could raise funds for the party leadership. He first approached the Congress, meeting KPCC president Sunny Joseph and Ramesh Chennithala in Delhi, but was turned away. He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on 16 March, the day after the election schedule was announced. The BJP officially fielded him from Nattika in its second candidate list on 19 March. Nattika is one of the seven Assembly segments within the Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency, where the BJP’s Suresh Gopi won by 74,686 votes in 2024. Mukundan’s defection hands the BJP a sitting MLA’s local network in a constituency reserved for Scheduled Castes, where the Suresh Gopi wave was strongest. Aisha Potty, a three-time Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] MLA from Kottarakkara in Kollam district, joined the Congress on 13 January. Known as a “giant killer” for defeating Kerala Congress stalwart R Balakrishna Pillai in 2006, Potty accused the CPI(M) leadership of systematic neglect after being denied a ticket in 2021. The Congress has fielded her as its UDF candidate from Kottarakkara, where she will contest against Finance Minister KN Balagopal. S Rajendran, a three-time MLA and Tamil-speaking Dalit leader from Idukki, was expelled from the CPI(M) and joined the BJP. He is contesting from Devikulam. These are not marginal leaders. They are elected legislators with ground-level networks that carry votes. But the most symbolically significant departure from the CPI(M) is G Sudhakaran, the four-time MLA and two-time minister from Ambalappuzha. Sudhakaran is the brother of G Bhuvaneswaran, a CPI(M) martyr killed in 1977, and within the political culture of the communist movement in Kerala, families of martyrs carry a status that goes beyond normal party hierarchy.Sudhakaran has declared he will contest as an independent from Ambalappuzha, with UDF support. His departure is not a defection to another party—it is something the CPI(M) finds harder to explain: a revolt from within the movement’s own moral centre. Also departing the CPI(M) are PK Sasi, the former MLA from Palakkad district and former chairman of the Kerala State Tourism Development Corporation, who is now contesting on the Congress symbol from Ottapalam; and Reji Lukose, a prominent CPI(M) television debate face, who joined the BJP citing the Left’s “rusted policies.” From the CPI, K Ajith, the former MLA from Vaikom who represented the constituency from 2006 to 2016, has joined the BJP. The Congress has also fielded A Suresh, a former personal assistant to CPI(M) veteran VS Achuthanandan and an expelled party member, from Malampuzha. In total, four former CPI(M) MLAs and two former CPI MLAs have crossed over during this election cycle—an unprecedented wave of departures for Kerala’s Left. Among the LDF’s smaller allies, the picture is equally fractured. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), both national parties with Kerala units in the LDF, are grappling with internal leadership disputes. The NCP’s Kerala unit has faced questions about its continuing relevance in the alliance. The RJD’s presence is marginal but symbolically significant. CK Janu, the tribal leader whose Janadhipathya Rashtriya Sabha was an NDA ally, defected to the UDF—a blow to the BJP’s carefully constructed narrative of social inclusion. Janu’s departure reinforces the perception that the NDA struggles to keep partners in Kerala. Seats That Defied Kerala’s Political Swings – An Election Data InteractiveThe UDF enters the election with momentum from two recent results: the 2024 Lok Sabha election, where the Congress-led front swept 18 of 20 seats, and the 2025 local body elections, where the UDF captured the Kollam Corporation after nearly 25 years and made strong gains across urban centres. But the UDF has its own internal turbulence. The most damaging involves Rahul Mamkootathil, the Congress MLA from Palakkad who was expelled from the party in August 2025 following multiple allegations of sexual abuse and forced abortion. The LDF is weaponising this aggressively in its campaign. Candidate selection disputes between Congress and the IUML delayed list announcements by 48 hours—the Congress missed its own deadline after the Satheesan and Chennithala camps turned ticket distribution into a contest over chief ministerial arithmetic, and the IUML forced the issue by releasing its own list first. The UDF’s strategic calculation is straightforward: ride anti-incumbency against a 10-year LDF government, absorb defectors where useful, and let the Gulf crisis do the rest. Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) MP NK Premachandran has already predicted the UDF will win “not fewer than 100 seats.” That number is almost certainly aspirational. But the confidence is telling.Ahoy, Captain! India’s Last Communist Boat is SinkingThe BJP is the defection market’s biggest buyer. It is absorbing leaders from both the LDF and the UDF, using the promise of Central government backing and the prestige of the Modi brand to attract candidates who see the NDA as a rising force. The acquisition of CC Mukundan is strategically significant. He was not a BJP fellow traveller. He was a CPI man who felt abandoned by his party and chose the NDA because it offered a winnable proposition in Nattika. If the BJP can replicate this pattern—absorbing disgruntled incumbents from both fronts—it could convert candidate-level defections into vote-level shifts in key constituencies. Padmaja Venugopal, the daughter of Congress stalwart K Karunakaran, had already defected to the BJP in March 2024 before the Lok Sabha election. Her departure from Congress was both personal and political, and it sent a signal that the saffron party was now attracting legacy Congress families—not just Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) cadre.The defection pattern, when mapped, reveals three dynamics: First, the LDF’s internal discipline is cracking. The CPI(M)’s iron grip on candidate selection — the party’s legendary ability to enforce ticket allocation without public revolt — is being tested. The smaller allies are restive. This is the burden of a third consecutive term bid: 10 years in power produces entitlement, and entitlement produces revolt when expectations are not met. Second, the UDF is the passive beneficiary. It is gaining from LDF’s losses without necessarily earning new loyalty. Aisha Potty’s shift to Congress and Sudhakaran’s independent candidacy with UDF support are transactions, not conversions. This makes the UDF’s gains fragile—dependent on anti-incumbency rather than positive mobilisation. Third, the BJP is building a coalition of the discontented. Its NDA alliance—BJP, BDJS, Twenty20, and now individual defectors—is not an ideological project in Kerala. It is a coalition of people who feel shut out by the LDF-UDF duopoly. Whether that coalition can convert dissatisfaction into votes depends on whether the voters in those constituencies follow the leader or follow the front. Kerala Poll Heat: Why Modi Govt Backtracked on FCRA Bill For NowIn Kerala’s history, the answer has almost always been: they follow the front. But 2024’s Thrissur result suggests that a sufficiently strong individual candidate can break that rule. The defection map is simply a leading indicator and at the moment it indicates an LDF under more stress than its leadership is willing to acknowledge, a UDF riding borrowed momentum, and a BJP that is building—one acquisition at a time—the pieces of a coalition that may not win this election but is positioning for the one after. (VK Shashikumar is a former roving foreign affairs correspondent who covered West Asia, and later set up the investigations team at CNN-IBN (now News18).

BECOME A MEMBER

Kerala Elections: The Defection Map

The LDF is bleeding leaders. UDF is gaining confidence. The BJP is picking up the pieces.

Read Latest News and Breaking News at The Quint, browse for more from opinion

Topics: Kerala Elections