C. P. John

C. P. John (born 22 April 1957) is an Indian lawyer, economist, communist politician and political strategist and the General Secretary of the CMP who is currently serving as the Minister of Transport in the Government of Kerala. He is the Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Thiruvananthapuram Assembly constituency after his victory in the 2026 Kerala Legislative Assembly election. He is the National executive member of Hind Mazdoor Sabha. He was the Vice President of SFI Central committee during 1978 and the youngest President of Kerala State committee of SFI. He served two terms as a member of Kerala State Planning Board. Currently, John is the only communist minister of a state in India.

John is a prominent leader of the UDF, and acts as spokesperson on behalf of the UDF. He was one of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leadership that sided with M.V. Raghavan when the latter broke with CPI(M) in 1986 and founded the Communist Marxist Party. When M.V. Raghavan died in 2014, the party had split and with the C.P. John-led faction staying with UDF. In 2016 C.P. John was elected general secretary of the Confederation of Indian Communists and Democratic Socialists.

C.P. John has a B.Sc. in physics (1977) and LLB (1980) from the University of Calicut.

2026 Kerala Legislative Assembly election In the 2026 Kerala Legislative Assembly election, C. P. John contested as the United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency. In a closely contested triangular battle involving the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the NDA, John secured victory with a margin of 9,863 votes. He polled a total of 45,586 votes, defeating the LDF-backed independent candidate, actor Sudheer Karamana, who received 35,723 votes.

+ 2026 Kerala Legislative Assembly election: Thiruvananthapuram Party Candidate Votes % ±% CMPKSC (UDF) C. P. John 45,586 38.3 +5.81 Ind. (LDF) Sudheer Karamana 35,723 30.0 -8.01 BJP Karamana Jayan 35,125 29.5 +2.21 Margin of victory 9,863 8.3 Turnout 1,19,021 64.5 CMPKSC gain from JKC Swing