The BJP assembly bypass losses in Chelakkara and Palakkad and vote leakage in Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency triggered discontent against the party leadership in Kerala. BJP president K. Surendran is facing criticism and a splinter group is even demanding his removal to improve the party’s chances in local elections scheduled for March next year.

In Palakkad, a seat where the BJP enjoys good ground support and rules the municipality, its candidate C. Krishnakumar lost to Congress’ Rahul Mamkootathil by 18,715 votes. The loss margin was more than four times that of the 2021 assembly elections. In Chelakkara, a stronghold of the CPI(M), the results put the BJP in third position.

On November 26, three days after the by-election results were declared, the state executive of the BJP met in Kochi to discuss the membership drive and organizational elections planned in the state early in next year.

The meeting did not discuss the results of the bypoll or any change in leadership. But the undercurrents were evident as prominent anti-Surendran leaders such as PK Krishna Das, MT Ramesh and AN Radhakrishnan skipped the meeting. Present was Shobha Surendran, a vocal critic of the state leadership.

During the discussions, Surendran directed the district presidents of Wayanad, Palakkad and Thrissur to submit a detailed report on the bypoll debacle within two weeks. The report is expected to be discussed in the next meeting of the state executive on December 6-7, which will be attended by Prakash Javadekar, BJP in-charge of Kerala.

Surendran, for his part, maintains that all is well in the Kerala BJP. “The media is fabricating baseless stories after the bypolls. The state executive was convened to discuss strategies relating to the membership drive and organizational elections. Fourteen members of the state executive were absent for various reasons. It is not possible for all to attend such meetings,” Surendran told INDIA TODAY.

On November 25, Javadekar, in a post-results message, had appeared to support Surendran. Hailing the BJP for putting up a good fight in the Kerala by-elections and calling possible demands for Surendran’s resignation “absurd”, he posted on social media platform sections asking if BJP office bearers will resign. In this logic, Pinarayi Vijayan must resign after the defeat of the LDF in the elections. In the same vein, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge must resign after losing elections in Maharashtra and Haryana.

While such a defense from a national BJP leader may appease dissidents in Kerala, party unity will remain divided in a state where, buoyed by the Lok Sabha debut from Thrissur, ambition is very high to have a huge impact in the country. Assembly elections in 2026.

In the 2021 assembly elections, the BJP had secured an overall vote share of 12.41 percent, but no seats. In this year’s parliamentary elections, the total vote share was 19.24 percent.

According to political commentator PK Surendran, who is familiar with the ground situation in Palakkad, the BJP remains in a strong position in the constituency with the ruling CPI(M) placed third in the last two polls. “This time, however, the BJP faced a loss of votes in the municipal wards of Palakkad, where it has won municipal elections since 2015. Overall, the BJP’s losses were minimal, although the there is no denying that the BJP lost a lot of votes. The party missed a great opportunity to send a lawmaker to the Legislative Assembly,” he said.

The BJP claims to have a strength of 1.5 million people in Kerala and, as the year draws to a close, it is making great efforts to woo the Christian community. However, for these efforts to produce the desired impact on the ground, the BJP will have to move from the divided house that it currently appears to be in Kerala to the cohesive unit that made a splash by winning Thrissur in the summer elections. .

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