Zero to 3: BJP gains in capital & Kollam, but setbacks elsewhere

By winning three Assembly seats, the BJP has registered its best-ever performance in a Kerala election. Of the three seats that the party won, two are in the Thiruvananthapuram urban area, where it has a strong base. BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar and former state president V Muraleedharan won from Nemom and Kazhakootam, respectively.

These wins in Thiruvananthapuram come close on the heels of the party having won the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation election in December last year. The BJP had won Nemom in 2016, before losing it in 2021. This time, Chandrasekhar has wrested back the seat from sitting CPI(M) legislator V Sivankutty.

The BJP’s third seat came from the Chathannoor constituency in nearby Kollam district, where B B Gopakumar’s consistent work at the grassroots level paid rich dividends to the party. Gopakumar had lost the elections at the constituency in 2016 and 2021.

Although the BJP had handed 19 seats to Twenty20, the party floated by the KITEX group, the alliance did not improve the BJP’s fortunes. In the Kunnathunad seat, the stronghold of Twenty20, the Congress’s V P Sajeenderan won with 70,292 votes.

The BJP’s Christian outreach in the state also did not help the party electorally in central Kerala. Shaju Philip is a Senior Assistant Editor at The Indian Express Read More