The Communist Party of India (Marxist) again finished as the largest single party in Keralam, and its LDF alliance crossed the majority mark.

It won 62 of the 140 seats on its own.

That fell short of the 71-seat majority mark.

But the alliance's 94 seats, 67.1% of the house, cleared it.

The Indian National Congress finished second, with 21 seats on 25.1% of the vote.

In February 2021 Mani C Kappan, the sitting NCP MLA for Pala, switched to the UDF after the LDF denied his request to contest that seat. His expulsion from the NCP followed, and he formed a new party, Nationalist Congress Kerala.¹

On 18 February retired engineer E Sreedharan, known as the 'Metro Man' for building the Delhi Metro, joined the BJP and was fielded as its candidate from Palakkad.²

On 28 February the Left Democratic Front released its campaign slogan 'Urappanu LDF' ('LDF for sure'), seeking re-election on its governance record, and released its full manifesto on 19 March.³

On 17 March P C Thomas announced the merger of his party into P J Joseph's Kerala Congress, consolidating a UDF constituent faction shortly before the campaign's final phase.⁴

On 20 March the Congress-led United Democratic Front released its manifesto under the slogan 'Naadu Nannakan UDF,' roughly 'UDF for Keralam's Advancement.'⁵

The INC lost the most ground of any party this election, with seats slipping to the CPM.

It lost 6 of the 27 seats that changed hands statewide.

The CPM's own total grew from 58 to 62 seats.

It has now finished as the largest single party for 4 elections running.

Turnout, the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot, fell -3.4 pp from the previous election, to about 74.1%.

Perinthalmanna, Keralam saw the tightest finish of the election: the winner's margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — was 38 votes.

Mattannur, Keralam saw the widest margin of the election, with the winner finishing 39.3% of the vote ahead of the runner-up.

Kunnamangalam, Keralam recorded the highest turnout of any seat, 81.5%.

Aranmula, Keralam was the largest constituency by registered voters, with 2,47,274 on its rolls.

Kanhangad, Keralam drew the most candidates of any seat, 11 names on the ballot.

NOTA — None of the Above, a ballot option letting voters formally reject every candidate on offer — drew 97,695 votes statewide, 0.5% of the total.

Keralam was formed on 1 November 1956 under the States Reorganisation Act, merging the former Travancore-Cochin state with the Malabar district and Kasaragod taluk from Madras State, and its first Legislative Assembly election followed in early 1957.⁶

That election produced one of the first democratically elected communist governments in the world: E M S Namboodiripad was sworn in as Chief Minister on 5 April 1957, with independents' support.⁷

Keralam's coalitions consolidated into two rival alliances in the late 1970s: the Congress-led United Democratic Front, formed in 1979, and the LDF, founded that year. The LDF first contested as a bloc in 1980, winning power under E K Nayanar.⁸