The party was a breakaway faction of the erstwhile ruling party, the
Congress. The split was a result of acrimony over by alleged slights to Karunakaran, including the disregarding of his lifelong services to the party . Karunakaran, Muraleedharan and
T. M. Jacob were among the leaders of the party. The DIC(K) also experienced internal dissent. Ahead of the 2005
panchayat elections, the DIC(K) allied with the erstwhile opposition coalition, the
Left Democratic Front (Kerala) (LDF) and won. However, ahead of the 2006 Kerala legislative assembly elections, the DIC(K) entered into an understanding with the
United Democratic Front (UDF) and the
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) to try to ensure K. Muraleedharan's victory in the assembly polls. That led to a group within the party forming a separate 'DIC(K) Left Forum', which wanted to align with the LDF. The Forum had plans of founding a new party after the elections. Later, the DIC(K) decided to merge into the Nationalist Congress Party (
NCP) led by
Sharad Pawar. This resulted in chaos within the DIC(K) and many of its leaders joined the
Indian National Congress again. ==Party flag==