UDF’s near three-fourths majority marked a historic victory for the Congress-led coalition

In a clear-cut mandate, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) has won the 2026 Assembly election in Kerala with a vote share that is the coalition’s highest since the 2001 election. After a decade in Opposition, the UDF has been rewarded with a 46.55% vote share, surpassed only by its 2001 performance of 49.05%. It’s a gain of 7.67 percentage points over its 2021 vote share. The jump has translated into a seat gain of 62, taking the UDF to 102 seats in 2026, nearly three-fourths of the 140 seats in the Assembly.

Conversely, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) has experienced a drop of 7.1 percentage points from its 2021 performance, polling 37.34% of the vote and falling 64 seats from its 2021 tally of 99, to just 35 seats in 2026. This is the LDF’s worst Assembly performance in over four decades. In every Assembly election since 1982, the coalition had polled at least 43.5% of the vote.