The Kerala BJP hopes to win at least 10 of the 104 Assembly seats in the upcoming state elections, buoyed by its performance in the local body polls that the Opposition party views as a barometer for the voters’ mood.
The BJP does not have a single Assembly seat in Kerala and only one in the Lok Sabha.
Elated after winning the prestigious Thiruvananthapuram City Corporation, which had been ruled by the LDF for 45 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called up and congratulated state BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar. Modi told him he would visit Thiruvananthapuram soon to announce a slew of projects for the capital city and “Viksit Kerala”.
According to Election Commission data, the BJP-led NDA won 1,919 wards this time against 1,597 wards in the 2020 local body elections. The alliance also pocketed 26 panchayats against 19 in 2020.
Chandrasekhar, who has fulfilled his mandate of clinching the Thiruvananthapuram corporation from the Left, was pleasantly surprised by Modi’s call.
"Modiji recalled how the BJP had won the Ahmedabad local body elections in 1987, which saw the party making gradual strides,” he told the media.
Apart from the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, the NDA gained control of the Tripunithura and Palakkad municipalities, but failed to replicate the success in Kollam, Kochi, Thrissur, Kozhikode and Kannur. The NDA also won just 26 gram panchayats out of 941.
Apart from top BJP leaders like Amit Shah and J.P. Nadda, the party’s Rajya Sabha member Sudhanshu Trivedi, Chhattisgarh legislator Bhawna Bohra and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav have hailed the party’s performance.
The state leadership has now been directed to leverage this momentum and try to win a few more seats apart from their strongholds in Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta, Thrissur, Palakkad, Kozhikode and Kasaragod districts in the Assembly polls.
Of the total 1,199 local bodies, the Congress-led UDF has won four corporations, 54 municipalities, 7 district panchayats, 79 block panchayats and 505 village panchayats in the two-phased polls held on December 9 and 11.
While the LDF won 1 corporation, 28 municipalities, 7 district panchayats, 63 block panchayats and 340 village panchayats, the NDA secured victory in 1 corporation, 2 municipalities, and 26 village panchayats.
The Congress leadership attributed the BJP’s growth in the state, including its win in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, to the policies of the LDF.