Do we like Pinarayi Vijayan?
Our score: 6 out of 10. A record that leans the right way on trans people, minorities and public health, held back by a contested rail project and an unresolved corruption case.
Vijayan is the Kannur strongman who ran the CPI(M) in Kerala as state secretary and then ran the state for two terms from 2016. He was known for tight control of both party and government, and opponents called him a “dictator”. He also steered the state through the Nipah outbreak, floods and Covid, and pushed big infrastructure like the Vizhinjam seaport.
The 2026 election was brutal. Early counts had the Congress-led UDF ahead in 89 seats to the LDF's 35, and at least 13 of his 21 ministers lost. He held his own seat of Dharmadam, but only after trailing for much of the count. His third term never happened.
Now the big stoush. The Enforcement Directorate alleges that money paid by the company CMRL to Exalogic Solutions amounted to a Rs 3.28 crore bribe to Vijayan, and sought corruption charges. He has denied it, calling the claims “ludicrous and shameful” and the whole thing persecution. In October the High Court directed an FIR on the ED's information, and he has asked the Supreme Court to set that aside.
It isn't his first brush with the courts. He was accused in the SNC-Lavalin power-contract case from his days as electricity minister in 1996. A trial court discharged him in 2013 and the High Court upheld that in 2017. The CBI's appeal has been dragging through the Supreme Court, which told the CBI it needed “very strong grounds”. He has said the case was politically motivated.
On the harm test, nothing nasty has come from him in his own words. His government launched a jobs scheme for trans people and he said it was committed to their “civil and human rights”. He led anti-CAA rallies in 2024, calling the law a bridge to a communal agenda, which his supporters see as standing up for Muslims. The mark against him is SilverLine, a Rs 63,941 crore rail project he backed despite environmental warnings. The new government scrapped it as ecologically unsustainable.
So where does that leave us? He says his priority was “to improve the living standards of ordinary people” and rejects the tag of right-wing as a political gimmick. His own side said arrogance cost them the election. The ED case is the swing factor. If it stands up, the nice-score drops hard. If it falls over, he looks like a tough old campaigner who got hounded.