Elamkulam Manakkal Sankaran Namboodiripad, popularly known as 'E.M.S. Namboodiripad' or simply by his initials 'E. M. S.', was an Indian communist politician and theorist, who served as the first Chief Minister of Kerala in 1957–1959 and then again in 1967–1969. As a member of the Communist Party of India (CPI), he became the first non-Congress Chief Minister in the Indian republic. In 1964, he led a faction of the CPI that broke away to form the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electoral seats, and one of the national parties of India. The party was founded through a splitting from the Communist Party of India in 1964 and it quickly became the dominant faction.
The Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest communist party in India. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur on 26 December 1925.
The Left Democratic Front (LDF) is an alliance of left-wing political parties led by Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the current ruling political alliance of Kerala, since 2016. It is one of the two major political alliances in Kerala, the other being Indian National Congress-led United Democratic Front, each of which has been in power alternately for the last four decades. LDF has won the elections to the State Legislature of Kerala in the years 1980, 1987, 1996, 2006, 2016 and had a historic re-election in 2021 where an incumbent government was re-elected for first time in 40 years. LDF has won 6 out of 10 elections since the formation of the alliance in 1980. The alliance consists of CPI(M), CPI and various smaller parties.
K. R. Gouri, born Kalathilparambil Raman Gouri, commonly known as Gouri Amma, was an Indian politician from Alappuzha in central Kerala. She was one of the most prominent leaders of the Left movement in India.
Founded on 21 September, 1947 in Kozhikode, the Kerala Socialist Party (KSP) is a political party in India established under the leadership of Mathai Manjooran. Initially a small entity, the KSP gained significant public attention due to the efforts of its front-line leaders. The party became part of the coalition that formed the first democratically elected communist government in the world after San Marino. Within its first two-and-a-half decades, the KSP significantly influenced the Kerala state's post-independence political landscape.
Pinarayi Vijayan is an Indian politician who serves as the chief minister of Kerala since 25 May 2016. A member of the politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), he is the longest-serving secretary of the Kerala State Committee of the CPI(M) (1998–2015). He has also served as Minister of Electric Power and Co-operatives during the third E. K. Nayanar ministry. Vijayan won a seat in the May 2016 Kerala Legislative Assembly election and 2021 Kerala Legislative Assembly election as the CPI(M) candidate for Dharmadom constituency and was selected as the leader of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and became the 12th Chief Minister of Kerala. He is the first chief minister from Kerala to be re-elected after completing a full term in office. In 2022, he also became the longest-continuous serving chief minister of Kerala surpassing C. Achutha Menon who had been the first to remain in office for 2364 consecutive days.
The Government of Kerala, also known as the Kerala Government, is the administrative body responsible for governing Indian state of Kerala. The government is led by a chief minister, who selects all the other ministers. The chief minister and their most senior ministers belong to the supreme decision-making committee, known as the cabinet.
Kerala is an Indian state, where federal legislative power is vested in the unicameral Kerala Legislative Assembly. The multilateral system has, since 1956, been dominated by the several pre-poll and post-poll alliances.
Communism in India has existed as a social or political ideology as well as a political movement since at least as early as the 1920s. In its early years, communist ideology was harshly suppressed through legal prohibitions and criminal prosecutions. Eventually, communist parties became ensconced in national party politics, sprouting several political offshoots.
The Indian state of Kerala has a strong presence of communist politics. Today, the two largest communist parties in Kerala politics are the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India, which, together with other left-wing parties, form the ruling Left Democratic Front alliance.
Karshaka Thozhilali Party (KTP) was a political party in Kerala formed by Fr. Joseph Vadakkan and B. Wellington. KTP was part of the government in Kerala from 1967 to 1969 in which E. M. S. Namboodiripad was the chief minister and B. Wellington was the health minister. When the state went to the polls at the time of general elections in March 1967, a new polarization of political forces had emerged in the meantime, leading to new electoral alliances. Politically the most potent combination was the new united front of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India, the Muslim League, the Revolutionary Socialist Party (India), the Karshaka Thozhilali Party and the Kerala Socialist Party. This seven-party combine was voted to power leading to the formation of a ministry headed by Shri.E. M. S. Namboodiripad.
The 2014 Indian general election polls in Kerala were held for the twenty Lok Sabha seats in the state on 10 April 2014. The total voter strength of Kerala for the election was 2,42,51,937 and 73.89% of voters exercised their right to do so. The results of the elections were declared on 16 May 2014.
The Kerala Legislative Assembly election of 1967 was held to constitute the fourth assembly in Kerala.
The Left Front is an alliance of left-wing political parties in the Indian state of West Bengal. It was formed in January 1977, the founding parties being the Communist Party of India (Marxist), All India Forward Bloc, the Revolutionary Socialist Party, the Marxist Forward Prosenjit Roy, the Revolutionary Communist Party of India and the Biplobi Bangla Congress. Other parties joined in later years, most notably the Communist Party of India.
Sudhindranath Kumar was an Indian politician, belonging to the Revolutionary Communist Party of India. He served as general secretary of the party 1960–1984, represented Howrah Central constituency in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and served as Food Minister of the state in 1969 and 1977–1982.
United Front, known until 1971 as Mini Front (1970–1971) and as Maxi Front (1971–1979) thereafter, was a coalition of political parties in Kerala state, India, which was the ruling combine in the state from 1970 to 1979. The coalition was formed by five political parties immediately before the 1970 Kerala Legislative Assembly election. It saw the inclusion a few other parties in the following years.
Kerala's major political parties are aligned under two coalitions, namely the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) since the late 1970s. Kerala was the first Indian state to have coalition government as early as 1961 .
In 1964, a major split occurred in the Communist Party of India. The split was the culmination of decades of tensions and factional infighting. When India became independent in 1947, differences arose of how to adapt to the new situation. As relations between the Nehru government and the Soviet Union improved, a faction that sought cooperation with the dominant Indian National Congress emerged within CPI. This tendency was led by S.A. Dange, whose role in the party hierarchy became increasingly controversial. When the Sino-Indian War broke out in 1962 Dange's opponents within CPI were jailed, but when they were released they sought to challenge his leadership. In 1964 the party was finally divided into two, with the left faction forming the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The split had a lot of regional variations. It also impacted other organizations, such as trade union and peasant movements. The split has been studied extensively by scholars, who have sought to analyze the various domestic and international factors involved.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist), Kerala or CPI(M) Kerala is the Kerala state wing of CPIM. It is responsible for organizing and coordinating the party's activities and campaigns within the state, as well as selecting candidates for local, state, and national elections. Currently, it is the governing party in the Kerala Legislative Assembly and has significant representation of the state in Rajya Sabha. The CPIM currently leads the LDF alliance.
