Kerala election 2026: Polls heat up as major fronts step up campaigns and identity politics takes centrestage

With just a week left for public campaigning for the Kerala Assembly 2026 elections to end, major political fronts are overhauling their strategies and intensifying efforts to win over voters for the single-phase election on April 9.

The electoral battle is crystallizing as a direct conflict between the ruling CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led revitalized United Democratic Front (UDF); The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the BJP, is trying to gain power as a third force in the sweepstakes.

In this context, the process that started as an election in which development, inflation and unemployment came to the fore, has become much darker since then. Cynical identity politics now dominates the fringe of electioneering, with conspiracy theories of collusion between rival coalitions and social initiatives involving organizations such as SDPI and Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH).

As the campaigns reached their peak, big names flocked to the state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has already visited Palakkad and Thrissur, is expected to return next week for a final push in the southern districts. While Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has electrified the race with a series of spirited rallies, his sister and AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is expected to launch her own campaign soon.

While the UDF was boosted by an improbable victory in the three-phase local body polls held in December 2025, the coalition has spent much of this campaign internally fighting fires over who the Prime Ministerial candidate should be if the UDF comes to power. The party is behind in announcing its list of candidates; and the public drama surrounding MP K. Sudhakaran, which has put the party leadership on edge over his candidacy, has taken the shine off the Opposition’s accusations.

While the UDF is now trying to revive the Sabarimala gold theft scandal, it is balancing this with a manifesto focused on social welfare and financial security, especially targeting youth and women.

However, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also hit back at Mr Gandhi over the Sabarimala gold loss case and questioned how the prime accused Unnikrishnan Potti was seen with Sonia Gandhi at his residence in Delhi along with some senior Congress leaders.

​Meanwhile, the LDF, which started its campaign on the basis of Mr. Vijayan’s raw political instinct, still aims to highlight the decade-long continuity with its development initiatives and welfare programmes. But the Left Front now faces a reckoning as it deals with internal erosion. Opponents turned UDF-backed candidates in Kannur, Palakkad and Alappuzha are clearly restless.

Moreover, senior Congress leaders, including Mr Gandhi, reiterate that there is collusion between the CPI(M) and the BJP in these elections. To support this, they point out that there has been no progress in the investigations into the gold smuggling incident. CPI(M) rubbished it, while BJP called it a bluff.

​As for the NDA, the coalition is trying to break traditional two-party dominance by converting increased vote share into real seats; It’s a daunting task that has stalled at the finish line before. The leadership is focusing on hard metrics from the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 to prove organic expansion of the party base.

However, the BJP’s ‘minority diplomacy’ with Christian voters seems helpless to remove the hurdle of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) issue. The proposed changes have alarmed the Church leadership and forced the BJP to work doubly hard to defuse the fallout and change negative perceptions in central Kerala.