Rural votes keep BJP at bay in Palakkad

Palakkad: BJP's inability to expand its support base in rural areas appears to have cost the party a crucial win in the Palakkad assembly constituency. While candidate Sobha Surendran held firm within the Palakkad municipal limits, the party failed to make the expected inroads in panchayat regions. Surendran lost to UDF's Ramesh Pisharody by a margin of 13,147 votes. Pisharody secured 62,199 votes against Surendran's 49,052, while LDF's N M Razaq polled 33,931 votes. Although Surendran improved on the BJP's previous tallies— 39,549 in the by-election and 38,002 in the local body polls—she fell short of the 50,220 votes secured by BJP candidate E Sreedharan in the 2021 assembly poll. In the BJP-governed Palakkad municipality, the party retained its urban stronghold, with Surendran securing 31,938 votes—up from 26,933 in the local body elections and 27,197 in the by-election. The rural picture told a different story. Surendran polled 7,257 votes in Pirayiri panchayat, 5,279 in Kannadi and 4,578 in Mathur. While these figures marked an improvement over previous elections, they remained well below the UDF's tally in those areas. The BJP first emerged as the second-largest political force in Palakkad when Surendran contested the seat in 2016 and has retained that position in every election since.