Pinarayi Vijayan

Pinarayi Vijayan (born May 24, 1945, Pinarayi, Kannur district, Madras Presidency [now in Keralam], India) is an Indian politician and a senior leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M). He served as the chief minister of Kerala (now Keralam) for two successive terms (2016–21 and 2021–26), leading a government formed by the Left Democratic Front (LDF), a coalition of primarily left-wing parties in Keralam. A member of the Polit Bureau, the highest executive body of the CPI(M), Vijayan served as the secretary of the Kerala state committee of the CPI(M) from 1998 to 2015. As chief minister, his government implemented policies related to social welfare, infrastructure development, and public health. In the 2026 state assembly election, Vijayan’s bid for a third consecutive term as chief minister failed as the LDF lost power to the United Democratic Front (UDF), a coalition of centrist and center-left parties led by the Indian National Congress.

Early life

Vijayan was born in the town of Pinarayi in Kannur district, then part of the Madras Presidency in British India (Kannur is now in Keralam), to Maroli Koran and Alakkatt Kalyani. His father worked as a toddy tapper, and the family experienced economic hardship. After completing high school, Vijayan worked as a handloom weaver before going into politics. In 1962 he attended the Government Brennen College, Thalassery, in Kannur, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics. During his college years he became involved in student politics and served as a leader of the Kerala Students Federation, one of the precursors to the Students’ Federation of India—the youth wing of the CPI(M). He joined the CPI(M) in 1964 and in 1968 was elected to the party’s Kannur district committee.

Legislative career

In 1970 Vijayan was elected to the Kerala Legislative Assembly from the Koothuparamba constituency in Kannur. In 1972 he became a member of the CPI(M)’s Kannur district secretariat. During the Emergency (1975–77), a 21-month period in India during which civil liberties were suspended and opposition leaders were detained under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s government, he was arrested for participating in protests. Vijayan later claimed that he was tortured by the police. He was reelected from Koothuparamba in the 1977 and 1991 elections, and he represented Payannur constituency in Kannur after winning in 1996. After the LDF’s victory in 1996, he was appointed minister for power and cooperation in the government led by Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar and served in the post for two years.

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Leadership within the CPI(M)

In 1998 Vijayan was elected secretary of CPI(M)’s Kerala state committee, a position he held until 2015, becoming the head of the party’s organizational structure in the state. In 2002 he was also elected to the party’s Polit Bureau, becoming a member of its highest decision-making body. As state secretary, Vijayan oversaw the party’s organizational activities and played a key role in shaping its electoral strategy. During his tenure the CPI(M)-led LDF experienced alternating electoral successes in Kerala: The LDF lost the 2001 Kerala legislative assembly election to the UDF and then returned to power in 2006 and lost again in 2011.

Chief ministership

After stepping down as state secretary of the CPI(M), Vijayan was projected as the chief ministerial candidate of the LDF for the 2016 assembly election, in which the LDF secured a victory. Vijayan was elected from the Dharmadam constituency in Kannur and sworn in as chief minister of Kerala. During his tenure, his government pursued infrastructure development through agencies such as the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board, coordinated disaster response during the 2018 Kerala floods, and implemented public health measures during a Nipah virus outbreak in 2018 and the COVID-19 pandemic. It also instituted several popular welfare measures, including the LIFE (Livelihood, Inclusion, and Financial Empowerment) Mission housing program and pension initiatives.

In the 2021 election the LDF won a second consecutive term, marking the first reelection of a ruling coalition in Kerala since 1977. Vijayan was elected from Dharmadam and sworn in as chief minister for a second term. His government continued infrastructure and welfare projects that were initiated in the previous term. Impetus was also given to digital connectivity initiatives such as the Kerala Fibre Optic Network (K-FON), which aims to provide Internet connectivity throughout Kerala. In 2025 his government announced that Kerala had achieved complete digital literacy, claiming Kerala was the first state in India to reach that milestone. Although Vijayan won in his constituency of Dharmadam in the 2026 state assembly election, the LDF’s defeat to the UDF ended his tenure as chief minister.

Corruption allegations

Vijayan was implicated in the SNC-Lavalin case, which concerned allegations of irregularities in a contract awarded by the Kerala State Electricity Board to Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin for the renovation of several hydroelectric power projects in Kerala during his tenure as minister for power and cooperation (1996–98). Corruption allegations were first raised in 2001, followed by a Comptroller and Auditor General report in 2005 that flagged financial losses in the project. The case was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India’s domestic crime investigation agency, which named Vijayan among the accused in 2009. In 2013 a CBI special court discharged Vijayan, and in 2017 the High Court of Kerala upheld the discharge.

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