Rajeev Chandrasekhar gets 3 cheers for his development plank; saffron party wins Nemom, Kazhakkoottam and Chathannur

BJP made a historic stride by winning three seats in the assembly elections. The figure, BJP leaders argue, was symbolic as the party had won exactly the same number of seats in West Bengal in 2016. The victory could be seen as a stamp of approval to party state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar's decision to talk more on development and less on politics, especially the kind of saffron politics that wins BJP votes elsewhere in the country.

A rare mix of communities is often pointed out as the reason that prevents BJP from winning seats in Kerala, despite attracting a sizeable vote share. When Chandrasekhar said while taking over as party president from K Surendran that BJP would focus and talk on development, not many in the party were convinced. A close look at Chandrasekhar's election campaign proves that BJP tried to deflect attention from Sangh Parivar politics as a point of debate. The strategy appears to have helped the party increase its connect with urban voters in Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts, which were grossly neglected by successive govts.



Nemom, Kazhakkoottam (both Thiruvananthapuram) and Chathannur (Kollam) are urban constituencies. Chandrasekhar first announced his candidacy soon after BJP won the Thiruvananthapuram corporation election. The clear margin he got from Nemom assembly segment when he took on Shashi Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram in the last Lok Sabha elections must have convinced him to enter the fray there. And he won the Nemom seat by defeating incumbent V Sivankutty, who had wrested the seat from BJP in 2021.

V Muraleedharan's victory in a tight contest was not at all surprising. The former Union minister has been camping in the constituency for years, connecting with voters through micromanaged activities. His victory, just like that in Nemom and Chathannur, where BJP had finished second in several previous elections before B B Gopakumar pulled it off this time, proved that groundwork, not rabble-rousing campaigns, wins BJP seats in Kerala. If the election campaign of several BJP candidates was replete with saffron colour and Sangh Parivar symbols in 2021, they hardly resorted to such shows. It was almost absent in Nemom, Kazhakkoottam and Chathannur.

BJP state general secretary Anoop Antony's performance in Thiruvalla, where he finished second by securing 43,000-plus votes, is encouraging for the party trying long to win the confidence of Christian voters. The poll also brightened the hopes of BJP in Kozhikode North and South seats where party candidates scored close to 40,000 votes for the first time. BJP had won big in the election to Kozhikode corporation by winning 13 seats for the first time. BJP was hoping to win Palakkad, but Sobha Surendran lost by 13,000 votes. BJP candidate and former DGP R Sreelekha could finish only as third in a three-cornered fight in Vattiyoorkavu, considered as a BJP stronghold.
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