Kerala Assembly Elections 2026: On Sunday, a day ahead of the May 4 counting of votes for the recently held Assembly elections in Keralam, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan changed his social media bio to “Polit Bureau Member, Communist Party of India (Marxist)”.

Vijayan is eyeing a historic third consecutive term from his home turf, Dharmadam. Vijayan won the Dharmadam seat comfortably in 2016 and 2021.

While the constituency is a storied fortress for the Left, the 2026 race appears to be more than just a victory lap, both from the United Democratic Front led by Congress, and BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.

This time, Vijayan is locked in a triangular contest with UDF’s VP Abdul Rasheed and K Ranjith, who is contesting on a BJP ticket.

During the 2021 elections, Vijayan secured 95,522 (59.8%) votes, whereas United Democratic Front candidate C Raghunathan received 28.4% of the total votes polled.

Vijayan had contested from Dharmadam for the first time in 2016, and went on to secure a victory by a margin of 30,905 votes from UDF’s Mambaram Divakaran.

Exit poll projections

Leading exit pollsters have predicted that the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) is poised to win Keralam assembly polls.

Axis My India projected a comfortable majority for UDF. It has predicted Congress-led UDF alliance to win 78 to 90 seats in the 140-member assembly. Ruling Left Democratic Front, meanwhile, is expected to win 49 to 62 seats and the BJP-led NDA zero to three seats.

According to People’s Pulse, the LDF is expected to win 55 to 60 seats, UDF 75 to 85 seats and NDA 0-3 seats.

JVC has also predicted a UDF win, with the Congress-led front projected to win 72 to 84 seats. LDF, it said, would win 52-60 seats and BJP-led NDA three to eight seats.

Keralam went to the polls in a single phase on April 9 and the voter turnout was 78.27 per cent.

2021 Assembly Elections

In 2021, the LDF broke the trend of the state having a change of government every five years. LDF had won 99 out of 140 seats in the 2021 polls, with CPI-M winning 62. Pinarayi Vijayan became Chief Minister for another term.
The results of Keralam elections will be out on May 4, along with the outcome of elections in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam and Puducherry.