New Delhi, May 4 -- The left parties in India are staring into oblivion as the Left Democratic Front (LDF), led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, faced defeat in Kerala. This loss marks the first time in five decades that India will not have a communist Chief Minister.

Coupled with the disastrous performance of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in West Bengal, a state once a stronghold of the Left from 1977 to 2011, these setbacks highlight the growing rejection of the Left by voters.

The Pinarayi Vijayan government, which came to power in 2016, was seen as the last bastion of communist rule after the Trinamool Congress (TMC) ended the Left's 34-year rule in West Bengal in 2011 and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) broke the Left ...