Left humbled in Kerala local body poll, BJP wins big in Thiruvananthapuram civic body for the first time

Is Lotus, the election symbol of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), finally ready to bloom in the southern state of Kerala, traditionally dominated by Communists and the centrist Congress party?

An answer to the question appears to have become inescapable after Kerala's ruling CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) suffered a major blow in the local body elections in the state, as the main opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) made a strong comeback across municipalities and panchayats, and the BJP made impressive gains in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of the state, and some other urban areas.

True, LDF and UDF remain the main players in Kerala politics till today. But in this year's poll, many rural and urban bodies where LDF had been in power have fallen to the UDF.

As the results of the civic body poll came in on Saturday, a bigger story of the day was the BJP-led NDA emerging as the single-largest front in the high-profile civic body in Thiruvananthapuram. The alliance won 50 of the 101 wards in the civic body, which the LDF had ruled for 45 years. The BJP appears set to capture power in the city corporation with the help of independents.

The results of the local body polls, which were held last week, came on Saturday, ahead of the state legislative assembly elections in Kerala scheduled for April next year. In the last assembly poll in 2021, the BJP had failed to win a single seat, while the LDF retained power with 99 seats and its principal challenger, the UDF, got the remaining 41 seats in the 140-member assembly.

The results must be worrying for the LDF, which has been governing Kerala since 2016 and is looking to retain power in the state for a third successive term.

The BJP has, for some years now, been trying to make inroads in Kerala politics, where power has always oscillated between the UDF and the LDF. The saffron party's victory in Thiruvananthapuram stands out as it plans to contest some assembly seats in the state capital.

The BJP also made impressive gains outside Thiruvananthapuram. It retained the Palakkad municipality after a close battle with the UDF and wrested the Tripunithura municipality from Congress.

According to the State Election Commission, the NDA has won 1,402 gram panchayat wards and 53 block panchayat wards across Kerala.

Buoyed by the performance of the BJP in Thiruvananthapuram, Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed the result "a watershed moment" in Kerala's politics and expressed gratitude to BJP workers for the "spectacular results".

Reacting to the civic body results, he said, "It is a day to recall the work and struggles of generations of workers in Kerala who worked at the grassroots, which ensured today's result became a reality."

BJP leader Shaun George expressed confidence that the NDA would make gains in central and southern parts of Kerala and claimed a shift of traditional UDF and Kerala Congress voters towards the BJP.

Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor on Saturday welcomed the outcome of the Kerala local body elections, calling the results a clear mandate and a celebration of the state's democratic spirit.

Taking to X, Tharoor congratulated the UDF for what he described as an impressive performance across local bodies, terming it a powerful signal ahead of the next state legislative elections.

Tharoor also acknowledged the BJP's win in the state capital and congratulated the party on its "historic performance" in the Thiruvananthapuram city corporation, calling it a notable shift in the capital's political landscape.

The BJP's rise in the Thiruvananthapuram local body has been witnessed over the last 15 years. In 2010, the party won six wards and five years later, its tally mounted to 35. In the previous election, it had 34 councillors but was the main opposition party in the corporation.

For its campaign, the BJP sought to bank on the alleged involvement of Left leaders in the "theft" of gold from the famous Hindu shrine of Sabarimala.

However, the BJP's performance in the Thrissur city corporation came as a disappointment for the party, as its tally of councillors increased by two this time as against six in 2020. BJP leaders had hoped for a better result, especially after it won the Thrissur parliamentary (Lok Sabha) seat in 2024 for the first time, when its candidate Suresh Gopi, a popular actor of Malayalam cinema, emerged triumphant.

This clearly brings out that the BJP has miles to go before it begins to set more ambitious targets in Kerala. The party's gains so far are confined largely to a few urban areas, and the LDF and UDF continue to enjoy a stranglehold over the state's vast rural and urban regions.