Kerala campaign enters final stretch: Rahul Gandhi calls LDF a ‘corporate-funded government in left clothing’
Opposition leader addresses packed rallies in Pathanamthitta and Kollam, framing the election as a choice between corporate capture and genuine left governance.
Rahul Gandhi arrived in Kerala on Monday to address the final round of public meetings before polling day, delivering some of his sharpest attacks yet on the ruling Left Democratic Front. Speaking in Pathanamthitta, Gandhi held up the microphone at his podium and pointed to the words “Made in China” printed on the casing. “How are we expecting the youth of Kerala to get jobs if we don’t make things in India?” he asked, to loud applause from a crowd that filled the ground well past its capacity.
The “Made in China mic” moment quickly went viral on social media, becoming the defining image of the day’s campaigning. But Gandhi’s more substantive charge — that the LDF government had handed Kerala’s infrastructure and economic future to large industrial conglomerates — was the thread running through every rally he addressed. “The LDF does not behave like a left front in Kerala anymore. It is no longer a left government, but a corporate-funded government,” he said in Kollam.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, speaking in the same city hours earlier, pushed back firmly. “No matter how severe the crisis, Kerala has always moved forward without faltering,” he said, citing the state’s response to floods, the pandemic, and financial constraints as evidence of governance that works for ordinary people.
The election, officially called Keralam 2026, has seen unusually high campaign intensity from all three fronts — the UDF led by Congress, the ruling LDF, and the BJP-led NDA. Voter registration has hit an all-time high in several districts, with the Election Commission reporting particularly strong registration among first-time voters aged 18-25.
