As per Indian Constitution, Kerala Government has three estates namely the legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. Each estate has its own functions to perform.

Legislature is the law making body. Kerala follows a Unicameral Legislative system, ie, there is only one house for state legislature namely the Legislative Assembly. The total number of members in the Kerala legislative assembly is fixed as 141. Of this, 140 are elected directly by the people on the basis of adult suffrage and one member is nominated from the Latin Community, which falls under minority category. The members of the legislative assembly elect one of themembers as it's Speaker and another as Deputy Speaker. The Speaker presides over the meetings of the House and conducts the business of the government.The Deputy Speaker performs the duties of the speaker in the absence of Speaker.

The Executive consists of the Governor, the Chief Minister and the council of Ministers. The President of India appoints the Governor, the nominal head of the state. The Governor appoints the leader of the majority party in the Legislative Assembly, as the Chief Minister. The Governor, then on the advice of the Chief Minister, appoints other ministers. The Chief Minister is the real Head of the State Government. The council of ministers is collectively responsible to the Legislative Assembly.

Judiciary is seperated from the Executive and the Legislature and the constitution provides an independant and impartial Judiciary. The judiciary comprises the Kerala High Court and a system of lower courts. The high court holds the seats of Chief Justice and 26 permanent and two additional pro tempore justices. The High Court of Kerala is the apex court for the state and also hears cases from the Union Territory of Lakshadweep.

Auxiliary authorities known as panchayats, for which elections are  held in every five years, govern local affairs. After the 74th Amentmend of the Constitution, Kerala is folllwing a three tier panchayath Raj system, comprising of the District Panchayats, Block Panchayats and Village Panchayats.

From the political part, Kerala hosts two major political alliances: the United Democratic Front (UDF led by the Indian National Congress) and the Left Democratic Front (LDF led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)).