Campaigning for the Kerala Legislative Assembly election ended at 6 pm on April 7. But the one question that does not have a definitive answer yet is this: Is any political front the “B” team of another alliance?

This is one charge that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) have constantly levelled against each other throughout the campaign: each has accused the other of functioning like the “B” team of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP. Senior leaders as well as candidates have made this allegation.

BJP leaders point out that the Congress, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), CPI, and CPI(M) are all partners in the INDIA bloc at the national level. The LDF and UDF, it claims, are engaged in a tacit alliance. In Kerala, the UDF is led by the Congress, and the IUML is a crucial partner in it. The CPI(M) leads the LDF, with the CPI as the second largest partner.

At a public meeting in Ernakulam on April 4, Rahul Gandhi repeated his charge that the LDF and BJP had a deal. “Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is a right-wing puppet,” he said and claimed that the Chief Minister would do exactly as directed by the BJP. Vijayan responded by calling Rahul Gandhi “ignorant” and socially and politically “illiterate”. Vijayan went back to the arrest of Kerala nuns in Chhattisgarh under the draconian anti-conversion law and questioned why the Congress government led by Ajit Jogi refused to repeal the law when it was in power. 

Later on the same day in Alappuzha, Rahul Gandhi elaborated on the alleged LDF-BJP deal: there are two types of Left leaders, the opportunist ones who were unperturbed by this unholy nexus and the ideologically driven ones who felt “betrayed and are now uneasy”. “The connection between the CPI(M) and RSS-BJP is now clear to the people,” he said. Rahul Gandhi’s narrative is backed by the fact that some CPI(M) leaders left the party ahead of the 2026 election.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) media coordinator Supriya Shrinate added another dimension to the debate by describing Vijayan as “Kerala’s Modi”. Addressing press persons on April 4, she said Vijayan specialised in silencing voices of dissent, much like Modi. This is in line with Rahul Gandhi’s speech in Alappuzha, where he said that leaders grow intolerant because they feel that they are powerful: “Those who believe power comes from themselves will become intolerant and disconnected from people. This has happened to both Prime Minister and the [Kerala] Chief Minister.”

Campaigning in Kerala, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar also repeatedly spoke in the same vein. Speaking to the press after a roadshow in Kannur, he said that it is common knowledge that the BJP uses Central agencies against opposition leaders and claimed that he himself is a target. The only opposition party in power which does not face this issue is the Kerala CPI(M), he said, adding: “This raises serious questions. We can only conclude that the BJP is supporting the LDF in Kerala.”

Many LDF leaders, particularly those from the CPI(M), are retaliating with the allegation that the Congress has an underhanded deal with the BJP. CPI(M) general secretary M.A. Baby said: “The setback faced by the LDF in the local body elections was because of the secret electoral understanding between the BJP and Congress.”

He alleged that this understanding was very clear in Nemom in 2016 and pointed out that until then, the BJP had never won an Assembly seat in Kerala. “A senior BJP leader, who was part of the RSS, entered the State Assembly only because UDF votes polled in his favour,” he said in Thiruvananthapuram.

Friends behind the curtain, says Modi of LDF & UDF

Narendra Modi asserted that the BJP was Kerala’s “A” team and that the LDF and the UDF had an unwritten pact. “The LDF and UDF have a secret partnership,” he said in Tiruvalla, speaking in Hindi. Unlike in Tamil Nadu, where the Prime Minister spoke in English, he preferred to speak in Hindi in Tiruvalla in central Kerala, where the Christian vote is the deciding factor. “They are friends behind the curtains because they are part of the INDI alliance. They are seeking votes by spreading lies,” he said.

On the ground, there are questions that the BJP will certainly need to answer. For instance, there are only two municipalities in Kerala where the BJP has won a majority—Palakkad and Thrippunithara. While there is a very tough fight in Palakkad, it appears that the BJP is not serious about Thrippunithara. In this town, where the municipality is controlled by the BJP, local leaders had left the “lotus” symbol on the walls after the December 2025 local body elections because they were confident that the party would contest this seat.

For some strange reason or a political calculation that is not immediately clear, the BJP decided to grant the seat to an ally, an outfit called Twenty20, backed by a corporate, Kitex. The UDF’s Deepak Joy faces the LDF’s K.N. Unnikrishnan in the seat. That the BJP is not in the fray is of immense help to the LDF, which wants to attract Hindu voters while holding on to its committed voter base. To be fair to Unnikrishnan, the LDF announced his name very early, and he has been working for at least a month in the constituency. Anjali Nair, the NDA candidate, contests on the jackfruit symbol.

The journalist Roy Mathew pointed out in a discussion that the former editor of Organiser, R. Balashankar, had openly stated that the CPI(M) and BJP had a deal. Balashankar made this charge after he was denied a chance to contest from Chengannur in the last election. Mathew said this is not an isolated instance.

What the numbers say

What do the numbers say? It is clear that the BJP's vote share dropped from a high of about 15 per cent in the 2016 Assembly election to just about 12 per cent in 2021. Election data from specific seats do not support the claim that the BJP has been playing along with the LDF. But in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the BJP made it a point to field popular candidates with star value. In this election, the UDF’s losses turned into BJP gains.

In Thrissur, for instance, where the BJP’s Suresh Gopi won by a margin of about 74,000 votes, the UDF’s losses matched massive gains made by the BJP. This was made possible because of minority Christian votes. But these votes swung back again to the UDF in the December 2025 local body elections. The problem that the UDF faces is that while the LDF has a dedicated cadre-based vote bank, the UDF’s vote bank is, at best, a floating one that can move from one party to the other. The LDF has a guaranteed minimum vote in each constituency, but the UDF’s votes can swing wildly, barring in Malappuram, where the Muslim vote is a major factor. 

But there is one question on which all fronts share the same, regressive view:  should women of reproductive age be allowed to enter Sabarimala?

The Supreme Court notified on April 4 the constitution of a nine-judge Bench, headed by the Chief Justice of India, to review the earlier judgment, which allowed women of all age groups to enter the temple. The review began on April 7, two days before Kerala goes to polls on April 9.

In a complete volte-face, the LDF government submitted in court that it supported “preservation of traditions and customs”. In 2018, the LDF government implemented a Supreme Court judgement that allowed women of all age groups to enter the temple. But soon after the first set of women entered, the same government, fearing a backlash, quietly refused entry for women in the 10-50 age group. By openly stating its position in the Supreme Court, the LDF hopes to garner a section of the Hindu vote that might have gone to the BJP or the UDF.

It is clear that there are local adjustments in some seats because of the relationships that individual politicians maintain across the political divide. As the Sabarimala case shows, all fronts jettison ideology in an election. The available statistics do not point to an alliance-level accommodation by any front.

Also Read | Halt! Who is voting?

Also Read | Stalin moves from conciliation to command