They are the biggest party in the state elections but in national elections Kerala votes more for Congress and the communists only win a few seats, why?
Some people have this notion that we can bargain better if we send the representatives of the larger party, which is congress.
Not all of the populace is pro-communist, many choose the communists because they are more likely to focus on public welfare.
There was an article about this in the Quint but I’m not sure how reliable it is. It sounds very liberal: https://www.thequint.com/opinion/kerala-why-congress-led-udf-winning-in-lok-sabha-but-losing-in-the-assembly#read-more
I won’t be able to provide a super detailed answer re: political realities in Kerala, but I will point out two facts:
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Kerala only represents 2-4% of India’s population (35 million or so).
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CPI, CPI(M), other parts of LDF, etc, don’t have massive bourgeois electoral majorities/pluralities in Kerala. Enough to rule often but not 80% or anything like that, and not consistently. 3 of 20 Lokh Saba members are from a left party and 7/9 Rajya Saba are from a left party. Roughly speaking, Rajya Saba corresponds to the ruling party of a state and Lokh Saba corresponds to first past the post bourgeois electoralism.
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Rajya Saba has about 10 members from left parties so 7/10 are already from Kerala. Rajya Saba has around 250 members total. Lokh Saba has ~8 left party members so 3/8 are from Kerala. Lokh Saba has around 550 members total.
Obviously Kerala’s left has still made substantial achievements. Imagine if a state or province in your country were administered by socialists and had a much stronger set of guaranteed services and coherent class struggle. But the numbers make rough sense.
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