When the Kerala capital has a BJP mayor

An interesting aspect of the BJP’s record in Kerala is that the groundwork it has done in the past few years by raising local issues especially related to faith

A BJP councillor, VV Rajesh, was sworn in as the mayor of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, on Friday. This achievement is significant for both the BJP and Kerala politics. First, the symbolism in having a BJP mayor in the state capital is not to be missed, especially when assembly elections are due in less than six months. Second, the BJP has never before won a corporation in Kerala, which is why Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it was “a watershed moment” for the party. However, the BJP should be worried that its vote share in the local bodies drastically fell from 19.26% in 2020 to 14.76% this time.

Kerala politics has been a duopoly since the state’s formation in 1956, and voters have refused to back any party outside the two coalitions led by the CPM and the Congress. The BJP has broken that pattern in Thiruvananthapuram. (PTI)

An interesting aspect of the BJP’s record in Kerala is that the groundwork it has done in the past few years by raising local issues, especially related to faith such as entry of women in the Sabarimala shrine, and building broader social coalitions with the help of caste organisations and political groups outside the two dominant political coalitions in the state, have helped the party increase its vote share in successive elections. But, the rise in votes (for instance, 10.5% vote share in the 2014 general elections to 16.8% in 2024) has not produced the expected electoral gains — the party has won just one assembly seat (2016) and one Lok Sabha seat (2024) from Kerala so far. This is unlike in other southern Indian states, where the BJP has been successfully associated with dominant parties/coalitions and won assembly and parliamentary seats. Kerala politics has been a duopoly since the state’s formation in 1956, and voters have refused to back any party outside the two coalitions led by the CPM and the Congress. The BJP has broken that pattern in Thiruvananthapuram; the challenge is to replicate it in the assembly polls.