Thiruvananthapuram, March 13 (IANS) Even as recent electoral trends in Kerala have favoured the opposition, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) on Friday reiterated its confidence that the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) will retain power with a massive majority in the upcoming Assembly elections.

The assertion was made by CPI-M State Secretary M.V. Govindan while speaking to the media here.

He said the process of finalising LDF candidates is nearing completion and that the names would be announced immediately after the election schedule is declared.

However, the claim comes at a time when the Left Front, ahead of every election held after the 2021 Assembly polls, and the CPI-M in particular, has made tall claims of sweeping the polls.

But the political momentum appeared to shift in favour of the Congress-led opposition each time.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when votes were counted in Kerala, the LDF managed to secure just one of the 20 seats in the state.

This was followed by a series of by-elections in which, barring one constituency, the rest were won convincingly by the United Democratic Front (UDF).

More recently, in the local body elections held in December, the Left had expressed confidence of repeating its dominance.

The results, however, saw the Congress-led UDF register what party leaders described as one of its best performances in the history of local body polls in Kerala.

Despite these setbacks, Govindan on Friday maintained that the LDF would secure a decisive mandate in the next Assembly election.

He also criticised the foreign policy of the Central government, alleging that India’s growing alignment with the US is undermining the country’s sovereignty and self-reliance.

According to him, this policy shift began during Congress-led governments and is now being aggressively pursued by the government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Govindan said India’s traditional foreign policy had been to oppose what he termed American imperialism.

However, he argued that this approach began to change during the tenure of former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, after which India moved closer to the US.

He also pointed out that diplomatic relations with Israel were restored during that period and alleged that through the nuclear agreement India compromised its self-reliance and sovereignty, effectively becoming a junior partner of the US.

India had earlier adopted a non-aligned position against what he described as the war policies of American imperialism, but the country now finds itself in a dangerous situation of being fully aligned with the US, Govindan added.

–IANS

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