Thiruvananthapuram: With 35 councillors out of 100 in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hopes to gain big and wrest power from the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the Kerala local body polls in the district.
The party, which has put all its chips in a city that has been its biggest source of strength in Kerala, is hoping to cross 52 seats this time. After delimitation, the corporation has a total of 101 wards. Currently, the LDF holds 52 seats and the Congress has 10.
Notably, this will mark the first election under Kerala chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has visited the state twice this year to assess the poll preparations.
The election for the 1,199 local bodies are scheduled 9 and 11 December, just months ahead of the assembly polls. Traditionally dominated by the LDF and the United Democratic Front (UDF), the BJP seeks to cause an upset in both elections. The confidence is boosted by its first-ever Lok Sabha victory in 2024 from Thrissur.
The seriousness is reflected in the candidate list, too. It has fielded Kerala’s first woman IPS officer, R. Sreelekha, in the Shasthamangalam ward and Arjuna Award winner Padmini Thomas in Palayam.
But it’s not just the candidate list and the Lok Sabha vote share that is giving confidence, it’s also the BJP’s organisational strength. Thiruvananthapuram has been a bastion of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) since the 1980s and the district where the BJP secured its only assembly election victory from Nemom in 2016. Even as the party struggles with infighting across the state, unlike Thrissur, Thiruvananthapuram stands out for its cadre base.
“Since 1984, we have been working strongly to form a base,” P. Ashok Kumar, a veteran district president, told ThePrint. He said the party’s strong presence was due to the Sangh’s deep roots, which led to the formation of Hindu Munnani in Thiruvananthapuram.
Kumar said the party was able to send six corporators in 1989, which went up to 35 in 2020. He added that the party is confident of winning the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, as the RSS is taking it as a matter of pride during its centenary year.
Political analyst K.P. Sethunath said the BJP’s growth is also because of the erosion of Congress support, especially from the Hindu upper-caste communities. “One thing they did was take Nair votes. The Congress was mostly fielding Christian Nadars, so Nair votes went to the BJP.”
Sethunath said if the Congress fails to overcome its organisational challenges, the anti-incumbency against the Left could benefit the BJP.
“The only thing they need to see is if they can overcome the Left. Most of their votes lie among upper-caste Hindus and the elite crowd,” Sethunath said, adding that the party could win in Thiruvananthapuram.
The gradual growth
The BJP’s growth in Thiruvananthapuram, bordering Tamil Nadu’s Kanniyakumari district, is closely associated with its early years in Tamil Nadu through the Hindu Munnani and the RSS.
The Hindu Munnani, a militant Right-wing outfit, was formed in 1980 in Kanniyakumari. While the Munnani held events including Ganesh Chathurthi celebrations, a wing was formed in Thiruvananthapuram.
The Munnani fielded Kerala Varma Raja in the 1984 general elections. It secured 19.80 percent of the votes, behind the Congress (43 percent) and the Lok Dal (33.41 percent). Though the BJP fielded its own candidate P. Ashok Kumar in 1989, he got only 7.47 per cent of the votes.
Thiruvananthapuram vice-president Sreevaraha Vijayan said the party’s growth coincided with the work of O. Rajagopal, who, he said, contested in over 30 elections before his only win from Nemom.
“O.R. was almost able to touch victory several times. In 2014, he was leading in four of the seven Assembly segments in the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency. But the UDF won as the differences were too much in other segments,” he said.
A two-time Rajya Sabha MP, Rajagopal served as Minister of State for Defence, Parliamentary Affairs, Urban Development, Law, Justice and Company Affairs, and Railways during the Vajpayee rule. Notably, he secured over 20 percent votes in Assembly and Lok Sabha polls since the 1970s and finally won from Nemom in 2016, securing 47.46 percent votes.
Similarly, in the 2014 general elections, he secured 33.53 percent votes, behind Shashi Tharoor (37.45 percent). In 2019, BJP’s Kummanam Rajasekharan came second with 31.30 percent votes, while in 2024, Rajeev Chandrasekhar got 35.52 percent.
This also marked the gradual reduction of the Congress’s win margin. For example, Tharoor saw his victory margin reduced from close to one lakh votes in 2009 and 2019 to 16,077 votes in 2024.
Vijayan said the Sangh’s strength and the party’s hold gradually increased as the Congress repeatedly appeased minorities in the district.
Thiruvananthapuram has a majority Hindu population (66.46 percent), followed by Christians (19.10 percent) and Muslims (13.72 percent). The Hindu voters consist largely of upper-caste communities, including Brahmins and Nairs, in the urban areas.
He added that though the BJP faced infighting in other strongholds such as Palakkad, it was able to overcome it in Thiruvananthapuram due to its strong machinery. Under V Muraleedharan’s leadership, the party extended and strengthened its booth-level work, he said. The party, he added, doesn’t need to “work from scratch” as it has been deeply involved in local matters for the past several years.
Vijayan said the party, under the current leadership, has grown further across Kerala.
Unlike previous state presidents with RSS background, Chandrasekhar was the first technocrat to head the party in Kerala. Since he took over in March, the BJP has scaled down its anti-minority rhetoric, and been solely focusing on development, and central government schemes. Last week, it launched a door-to-door campaign to reach out to Muslim households.
One of Chandrasekhar’s first major events was the launch of the ‘Viksit Keralam convention’ across the BJP’s 30 organisational districts. The events targeted the UDF and LDF governments for their alleged misgovernance. Similarly, he launched a ‘Viksit Ananthapuri’ (developed Trivandrum) campaign last week.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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