For decades, Kerala has been treated as a political terra incognita for the Bharatiya Janata Party—a state where the Communists ruled the roost, the Congress survived through alliances, and the BJP remained a peripheral force with vote share but no real power. That assumption has now been decisively shaken. The BJP-led NDA’s capture of the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation—ending the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front’s 45-year grip on the civic body—is not just a municipal upset. It is a political signal flare.
To understand why this matters, one must first appreciate the uniqueness of Kerala’s political ecosystem. Unlike much of India, the contest here has largely been bipolar: the LDF versus the Congress-led UDF, with the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) playing a decisive role in cementing minority consolidation behind the Congress. The BJP and its ideological parent, the RSS, have been active in Kerala for decades—patiently building cadre strength, running social organisations, and attempting cultural assertion, from the Vivekananda Rock Memorial to sustained grassroots work. Yet electoral success remained elusive.
The reasons were structural. Kerala’s demography—high minority concentration in urban centres like Thiruvananthapuram, coupled with a steady erosion of Hindu political consolidation—worked against the BJP. The party’s earlier ideological rigidity also limited its appeal beyond a committed base. Vote shares rose, expectations peaked (especially during the last Lok Sabha elections), but seats did not follow. Many believed the BJP might finally open its account in Parliament from Kerala; it did not.
What changed now is not merely arithmetic, but approach.
Under Narendra Modi’s leadership, the BJP—along with the RSS ecosystem—has subtly recalibrated its politics in Kerala. The emphasis shifted from overt ideological assertion to governance, inclusivity, urban development, and local leadership credibility. This was not an abandonment of core beliefs, but a strategic softening designed to expand acceptability in a state wary of ideological extremes.
Leadership played a critical role. The presence of credible, experienced faces—particularly former Union Minister Kummanam Rajasekharan (Chandrasekharan), who has long worked Kerala’s political and cultural terrain—helped give the BJP a recognisable, non-threatening, and administratively serious image. This mattered immensely in urban local body elections, where civic governance often trumps grand ideology.
The results speak for themselves. The NDA won 50 of the 101 wards in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, reducing the LDF to 29 seats and pushing the Congress-led UDF to a distant third with 19. This is a tectonic shift in the state capital’s political balance. The NDA also wrested Tripunithura Municipality—an A-grade urban body that had alternated between the LDF and UDF for decades—while retaining Palakkad, already a BJP stronghold.
Equally important is the Congress factor. Internal bickering, leadership drift, and mixed messaging have weakened the UDF’s coherence, even in urban pockets. Shashi Tharoor’s response to the results is particularly telling. While congratulating his own alliance, he openly acknowledged the BJP’s “historic” victory in his home constituency, calling it a reflection of the electorate’s desire for change. His language—measured, respectful, and unusually appreciative of a rival—has fuelled speculation about his evolving outlook towards the BJP-led NDA, especially in the aftermath of national security events like “Operation Sindhoor.”
Whether Tharoor ever crosses over is secondary. What matters is perception: the BJP is no longer treated as an untouchable force in Kerala’s mainstream discourse. That psychological barrier—perhaps the most difficult to breach—has begun to crack.
The broader implication is clear. Kerala’s urban voter is signalling fatigue with ideological stagnation and single-party dominance. The BJP’s breakthrough suggests that with the right mix of local leadership, inclusive messaging, and governance-centric politics, even the most entrenched political fortresses can be challenged.
As Kerala heads towards the 2026 Assembly elections, the Thiruvananthapuram verdict will be studied intensely—not just by the BJP, but nervously by both the Left and the Congress. The “last bastion” is no longer impregnable. And that, in Kerala’s politics, changes everything.
