On May 4, Kerala may end up delivering a result bigger than its own election. If LDF loses, India will, for the first time in nearly half a century, have no Left govt anywhere in the country. The symbolism would be hard to miss. Just three days after May 1, celebrated across the world as Labour Day, India could find itself effectively without a governing communist outpost.

That would mark the end of an extraordinary run. Since Jyoti Basu took office in West Bengal in June 1977, there has never been a day without a Left govt in India. When Bengal fell in 2011, Tripura remained red. When Tripura fell in 2018, Kerala was already back under Pinarayi Vijayan.
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Views expressed above are the author’s own.
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