The Kerala Assembly elections 2026 are going on, and the BJP has left no stone unturned to expand its influence in the state. Among the party’s key faces this time is Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the former Union Minister and Kerala BJP president, who has filed his nomination from the Nemom constituency. Another senior leader, V Muraleedharan, is in the fray from Kazhakootam. Both leaders are central to BJP’s strategy, even though the party has had limited electoral success in Kerala in the past.
The elections will be held in a single phase on April 9, and results will be declared on May 4.
Who is Rajeev Chandrasekhar?
Rajeev Chandrasekhar is the son of Air Commodore MK Chandrasekhar and Valli Chandrasekhar. He completed his electrical engineering from Manipal Institute of Technology and earned a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the Illinois Institute of Technology in the US. He also completed an Advanced Management Programme at Harvard University.
Chandrasekhar began his career at Intel, where he contributed to the development of the 80486 and Pentium processors. In 1991, he married Anju Chandrasekhar, daughter of TPG Nambiar, the founder of BPL Group. He then returned to India, joined the family business, and founded BPL Mobile in 1994.
Follow: Kerala 2026 Election LIVE
In politics, Chandrasekhar served as an Independent member of the Rajya Sabha representing Karnataka from 2006 to 2018. In 2018, he was re-elected as a BJP member for a third six-year term. He later joined the Second Modi ministry as Minister of State in July 2021, overseeing the Ministries of Electronics and IT, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and Jal Shakti. Previously, he also served as BJP’s national spokesperson.
Chandrasekhar contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from the Trivandrum constituency but narrowly lost to Shashi Tharoor by 16,077 votes.
Despite these many setbacks, he remains a vital figure in BJP’s plan to expand its presence in Kerala.
About Nemom constituency
Nemom is one of Kerala’s 140 state legislative assembly constituencies and forms part of the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency. The seat has special significance for the BJP, which has labeled it the “Gujarat of Kerala.”
In 2016, Nemom delivered the party its first and only Assembly victory in the state.
Currently, the constituency is represented by V Sivankutty of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The 2021 election saw Sivankutty win with 55,837 votes (38.24%), while BJP’s Kummanam Rajasekharan came close with 51,888 votes (35.54%).
The Indian National Congress candidate K Muraleedharan secured 36,524 votes (25.01%). The majority margin was just 3,949 votes.
Nemom had 2,04,718 registered voters in 2021, with a turnout of 71.49%. The constituency has consistently shown intense competition between CPI(M) and BJP.