Summary of this article
The BJP won three seats, its best-ever showing in Kerala.
Victories in Nemom and Kazhakoottam came with razor-thin margins.
Despite an 11.42% vote share, BJP trails parties like the Indian Union Muslim League in turning votes into seats.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has historically struggled to gain a foothold in Kerala, where politics has largely been shaped by the dominance of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF). However, the 2026 assembly election ended this long wait for the BJP with the most anticipated results as the party won three seats.
BJP state president and former Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti of India Rajeev Chandrashekhar won from Nemom whereas V. Muraleedharan won from Kazhakoottam and BB Gopakumar won from Chathannur constituency in Kollam. Another notable BJP candidate Sobha Surendran contested from Palakkad but was defeated by Malayali actor and comedian Ramesh Pisharody who was contesting from Indian National Congress.
Before the polls, BJP was in the news for all the bad reasons as its leader Sobha Surendran and his team were allegedly caught distributing cash for vote before polling day and an FIR was filed against her.
Victories with narrow margins
Two of three seats that the BJP won - Nemom and Kazhakoottam, were won with a very thin margin of 5,000 and 428 votes respectively. BJP’s V. Muraleedharan defeated CPIM’s Kadakampally Surendran by just 428 votes in Kazhakoottam constituency. In the Nemom constituency also the contest remained very tight, with Chandrashekhar of the BJP defeating V. Sivankutty of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), a prominent leader and sitting minister—by a narrow margin of 4,978 votes. BJP’s BB Gopakumar defeated R Rajendran of the CPIM from Chathannur constituency, with 4398 votes.
Decade ago, In the 2016 Assembly election in Kerala, the BJP managed to gain one seat with O. Rajagopal winning from Nemom, the party’s first-ever seat in the state Assembly.
Since then, the BJP has sought to grow its presence by increasing its vote share, intensifying grassroots campaigns, and attempting to broaden its social base. Rajeev Chandrashekhar, BJP state president who won from the same Nemom constituency today, did the focused campaign targeting a limited number of seats. Despite these efforts, it continues to encounter deep-rooted political and ideological barriers in Kerala.
The BJP saw a marginal increase in its vote share, rising to 11.42% from 11.3% in the Kerala Legislative Assembly election 2021. The Indian Muslim League (IUML) has around 11 % vote share; less than the BJP but the conversion rate is extremely good as far as the winning seats are concerned.
The CPIM’s vote share was 25.38% in 2021 which has now dipped to 21.77%. INC’s vote share was 25.12 which has now increased to 28.79%.
