Key Takeaways
May 4, 2026 · 2 min read · By Rishabh Bhardwaj
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Early vote counts in the 2026 Kerala assembly elections show the United Democratic Front (UDF) leading in all three constituencies in the Wayanad district, with the Left Democratic Front (LDF) on the back foot in a region it has historically contested hard.
The sharpest result to watch is in Mananthavady, where sitting Cabinet Minister O.R. Kelu of the CPI(M) trails Congress candidate Usha Vijayan by 744 votes. A serving minister losing his seat would be a significant blow to the LDF, both symbolically and in terms of the government's legislative strength.
Kelu is not a fringe figure, he holds a Cabinet post in the current Kerala government, making his seat one of the more closely watched in the state. A deficit of 744 votes at this stage is narrow enough to reverse, but it signals that the LDF's incumbency in Wayanad is under real pressure from the Congress-led UDF.
Wayanad gained national attention after the 2024 Lok Sabha by-election, where Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra won the parliamentary seat vacated by Rahul Gandhi. That momentum appears to be carrying into the assembly race, with the UDF holding leads across all three segments in the district.
Counting is ongoing, and a 744-vote margin can shift with each round. The final result in Mananthavady will be one of the cleaner tests of whether the LDF can hold ground in a district where the UDF has recently built momentum. A sweep of all three Wayanad seats by the UDF would reinforce the Congress narrative of a regional shift, while an LDF recovery in any seat would limit the damage to the ruling front's overall tally.
The broader Kerala result will determine whether the LDF retains power or cedes it to the UDF for the first time since 2016.
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