P. Karunakaran is a member of the 16th Lok Sabha of India and is the leader of the Loksabha for CPI(M) in the 16th Loksabha. He represents the Kasargod constituency of Kerala and is a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) political party. He was elected to Lok Sabha for the first time in 2004 general election. He won the second term in 2009 Lok Sabha election. He got 385,522 votes against 321,095 of the Congress(I) candidate.