THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The district from which the first BJP MLA was elected and the first BJP-led corporation came to power, Thiruvananthapuram has always been under the close watch of the saffron party.
A city which lies along the administrative fabric and political dynamics of the state, the BJP had been pinning high hopes on multiple constituencies here. While two of the three seats the party won in the state were from Thiruvananthapuram, BJP’s performance improved in 12 of the 13 constituencies it contested here. Even while holding the third position in most of these constituencies, their status improvement could possibly indicate a changing political dynamic in the district.
Of the total votes polled in the constituencies of the district, the BJP managed to get 21.92% votes in 2021, which saw a remarkable shift to 24.54% in 2026. The saffron party also won more than 30,000 votes and 20% share in 8 constituencies. BJP also gained more than 30% votes in three constituencies — Nemom, Kazhakkoottam and Attingal.
The winning seats saw a huge leap in the party’s vote share. While Rajeev Chandrasekhar raised the share from 35.54% in 2021 to 40.75% in 2026, making it the party’s highest vote share in the history of the constituency, V Muraleedharan improved the party’s status from 29.06% in 2021 to 35.39% in 2026.
Though the party lost a meagre 0.09% vote share in Vattiyoorkavu, it retained its second position in Attingal, and became third in the Thiruvananthapuram Central constituency for a margin of 598 votes.
On an expected note, Kattakkada saw a triangular contest where BJP’s former state president P K Krishnadas earned his usual statistics. However, he raised the share from 23.77% in 2021 to 26.14% in 2026. Thiruvananthapuram Central, which would have been the party’s second constituency as runner-up in the district through Karamana Jayan, also saw a small rise of 1.86% votes.
Beyond the winning seats, the party’s sizeable vote share increase was seen in constituencies like Nedumangad (6.98%) and Aruvikkara (5.63%), where it fielded young faces like Yuvaraj Gokul and Vivek Gopan, though the latter couldn’t offer a tight competition to both LDF and UDF.
Another notable increase is in the coastal belt, where the party raised its vote share by 4.62% in the Kovalam constituency.
However, the party’s Varkala candidate, Smitha Sundaresan, a CPM turncoat, couldn’t make much of an impact.
Chirayinkeezhu, which saw a spike to 21.36% in 2021, maintained nearly the same share with a minor increase to 22.31%. While the marginal increase of 1.28% votes in Neyyatinkara remained impactless.