Kerala’s municipal politics entered uncharted territory on Friday as VV Rajesh was elected Mayor of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, becoming the first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader to hold the post and signalling a decisive break from decades of Left dominance in the state capital.
Rajesh secured 51 votes in the mayoral election, crossing the halfway mark in the 101-member corporation. The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front candidate RP Shivaji polled 29 votes, while the Congress-led United Democratic Front nominee and former legislator KS Sabarinathan received 19 votes. One independent councillor abstained from voting.
How the BJP reached the majority mark
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance’s path to the mayoralty was sealed late on Thursday night, when independent councillor P Radhakrishnan extended support to the NDA. The backing took the alliance’s strength from 50 to 51 councillors, making Rajesh’s election virtually certain even before voting began.
The NDA’s rise as the single largest bloc in the corporation itself marked a first for the party in Kerala’s political history.
Local body results that changed the arithmetic
In the December 9 local body elections, the BJP delivered a major upset by winning 50 of the 100 wards that went to polls in Thiruvananthapuram, ending nearly 45 years of CPI(M) control over the city’s civic body.
The LDF was reduced to 29 seats, while the UDF managed 19. Two wards were won by independents, and polling in one ward was postponed following the death of a candidate.
Party deliberations and leadership backing
The elevation of Rajesh followed days of internal consultation within the BJP. State BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar made two trips to New Delhi as part of the deliberations, underlining the involvement of the party’s national leadership.
The party was understood to be weighing Rajesh’s candidature against that of former Director General of Police R Sreelekha, before consensus emerged in Rajesh’s favour, reportedly with strong RSS support.
During the meeting of newly elected councillors at the BJP office on Thursday, party general secretary S Suresh formally announced Rajesh as the mayoral candidate and named Asha Nath, a three-time councillor, as the Deputy Mayor nominee.
Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan telephoned Rajesh to congratulate him.
BJP supporters assembled in huge numbers, raising slogans and bursting crackers soon after the results were announced, as the party marked what it described as a new chapter in Kerala’s urban politics.