The Left in Power: Assessing the Governance Model of Kerala’s Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government

Kerala’s governance model is exemplary and imperative in terms of comparative governance and developmental academic discourse. Since India’s independence, the state of Kerala has been set to be a model state for its leading performance in several domains of activities and practices, more so in the governance style. Currently, the state is governed by Pinarayi Vijayan under the banner of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government. There has been huge applause for the government in the recent past highlighting its accomplishments in delivering public welfare services, mitigating health challenges, maintaining law and order, curtailing corruption, responding to natural calamities, and so on. However, the principal opposition parties alleged the role of PR agencies behind this widespread acclamation. On the other hand, his government is criticized by the principal opposition party leaders of the United Democratic Front (UDF) for indulging in corrupt practices and for not doing enough to address the wide variety of challenges the state is facing, especially in the wake of the mounting economic instability of the state exchequer. Towards that end, this paper attempts to assess the governance model of the Left Democratic Front in Kerala by locating selected socio-political developments, the challenges posed by them to the good governance model of the Left Democratic Front government, and the policy approaches, initiatives, and plans of action employed by the leadership to address the issues and harbor the developmental model. A set of issues that have perturbed the LDF government in the last nine years, such as the Sabarimala issue, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and Nipah Virus (NiV), devastating floods, the financial crisis in the public transport corporation, and the agitation of the ASHA workers for honorarium hikes will be covered in the paper.