The unceremonious fall of the UDF in the assembly elections is seen as a setback to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who had tried to project the UDF as the credible forcethat could counter the rise of the BJP in the southern state during his campaign.

In addition, a high voltage state-wide campaign raising the Sabarimala women's entry issue and gold smuggling scam failed to better the fortunes of the Congress-led UDF at the hustings, as it lacked a strong state leadership to take on the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF on the ground.

The results also showed that the high command's decision to replace many candidates with fresh faces was rejected by the people.

The Congress state unit had to grapple with "I" and "A" groups soon after the candidate selection for the Assembly elections. Senior party leader K Sudhakaran openly attacked AICC general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal and veterans Ramesh Chennithala and Oommen Chandy, alleging that they were responsible for all the trouble the party found itself in. A minority consolidation in Muslim and Christian-dominated pockets in many districts in response to BJP's aggressive election campaign worked against the Congress-led alliance.

To check the rise of the BJP in the elections, the minorities preferred the LDF over the UDF. Though the UDF, led by former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala fought the polls banking on the Sabarimala issue and levelling charges of corruption and nepotism against the CPI(M)-led alliance, the results proved that they did not have much of an impact.

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