Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan submits his resignation to Governor

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Bringing the curtain down on a defining chapter in Kerala politics, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday night submitted his resignation to Governor Rajendra V. Arlekar, hours after the CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) suffered an unprecedented electoral drubbing. The Governor asked Vijayan to continue till the new Chief Minister assumes office. The resignation formally ends a decade-long tenure that saw Vijayan emerge as the longest-serving Chief Minister of the state, straddling two consecutive terms since 2016.

His re-election in 2021 had broken Kerala's long-standing pattern of alternating governments, cementing his position as one of the most formidable leaders in the state's political history.

Yet, the exit comes on a distinctly sour note.

The scale of the defeat marks a historic low for the LDF, raising serious questions about governance, anti-incumbency, and the party's connect with voters after ten uninterrupted years in power.

Vijayan, who cultivated an image of administrative firmness and centralised decision making, presided over a period marked by both crisis management and controversy from handling successive floods and the pandemic to facing sustained opposition attacks over corruption allegations and governance style.

For now, the resignation marks not just a routine transfer of power, but the end of an era that reshaped Kerala's political landscape, one that began with historic promise and concludes with an equally historic setback. (IANS)

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