BJP's V Muraleedharan Wins Kazhakkoottam by 428 Votes, Breaking CPI(M) Stronghold

Key facts

• V Muraleedharan won Kazhakkoottam by 428 votes.
• Kadakampally Surendran led in 16 of 19 counting rounds before Muraleedharan overtook him in the final rounds.
• Muraleedharan, 67, is a former Union minister of state for external affairs and parliamentary affairs.
• The BJP increased its Kerala assembly seat count from 0 to 3, winning Nemom, Kazhakkoottam, and Chathannoor.
• The party's vote share in Kerala rose marginally from 11.3% in 2021 to 11.4% in 2026.
• BJP's Rajeev Chandrasekhar won Nemom, defeating CPI(M) minister V Sivankutty.
• In Chathannoor, BJP's BB Gopakumar defeated CPI's R Rajendran by 4,398 votes.
• Kazhakkoottam had been held by CPI(M)'s Kadakampally Surendran since 2016.

A Razor-Thin Victory in a Key Battleground

V Muraleedharan, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate and former Union minister, has won the Kazhakkoottam assembly seat in Kerala by a margin of just 428 votes, defeating three-term incumbent Kadakampally Surendran of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The result, announced on May 4, 2026, caps a dramatic counting day in which Surendran led for 16 of the 19 rounds before Muraleedharan surged ahead in the 17th and 18th rounds to seal the victory. The constituency, an urban seat in Thiruvananthapuram district that houses a major IT corridor, has become one of the most closely watched in the state. The BJP's win here, alongside victories in Nemom and Chathannoor, gives the party three seats in the Kerala assembly for the first time since its lone win in Nemom in 2016.

How the BJP Turned the Tide in Kazhakkoottam

Muraleedharan's victory represents a long-term consolidation of the BJP's base in a constituency that was once a Congress stronghold. In 2011, the BJP secured just 6.86% of the vote here. By 2016, Muraleedharan himself had pushed the party's share to 31.90%, finishing second and pushing the Congress's sitting MLA M A Vaheed to third place. In 2021, despite a broader Left Democratic Front wave, BJP candidate Sobha Surendran retained second place with 29.06%. The party's growth accelerated after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar won over 40% of the vote in the Kazhakkoottam assembly segment, outperforming Congress candidate Shashi Tharoor in this pocket. The rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity and the transformation of the constituency from a rural area into an urban hub driven by the Technopark have been cited as factors behind the BJP's expanding footprint.

The Fall of a Three-Term Incumbent

Kadakampally Surendran had held Kazhakkoottam for two consecutive terms, winning in 2016 and 2021. In 2021, he secured a comfortable victory with 46.04% of the vote and a margin of 23,497 votes over Sobha Surendran. Earlier, he had first won the seat in 1996. His defeat this time came despite leading for most of the counting rounds, a sign of how tight the race had become. During the campaign, the BJP repeatedly raised allegations of gold theft at the Sabarimala temple, a sensitive issue in Kerala politics. In 2021, Surendran had publicly apologised for incidents at Sabarimala before the elections, a move that helped him retain the seat. This time, the allegations appeared to erode his support, contributing to his narrow loss.

A Broader Shift: BJP's Three-Seat Breakthrough

The BJP's performance in the 2026 Kerala assembly elections marks a significant advance, though the party's overall vote share in the state rose only marginally from 11.3% in 2021 to 11.4%. The party won three seats: Nemom, where Rajeev Chandrasekhar defeated CPI(M) minister V Sivankutty; Kazhakkoottam; and Chathannoor in Kollam district, where BJP's BB Gopakumar won by 4,398 votes against CPI's R Rajendran. Nemom had been the BJP's only previous assembly victory in Kerala, won by O Rajagopal in 2016, but the party lost it in 2021. Chandrasekhar, who lost the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat to Congress's Shashi Tharoor in 2024, had announced his candidacy for Nemom as early as December 2025. "I have been saying since 2025 that whatever the CPI(M) tries, it won't win this election. This was an anti-CPI(M) election, after their ten years of rule and the Sabarimala theft," Chandrasekhar said after his victory.

Congress Decline and the Triangular Contest

Kazhakkoottam's electoral history reflects a steady erosion of Congress support. The seat was a Congress stronghold under M A Vaheed, who won in 2001, 2006, and 2011. The Congress vote share dropped from 46.38% in 2011 to 28.82% in 2016 and further to 23.85% in 2021. In the 2026 election, Congress candidate T Sarathchandra Prasad finished third, as a significant portion of the anti-LDF vote shifted to the BJP. The triangular nature of the contest has made Kazhakkoottam a bellwether for the state's political realignment. While the LDF and UDF remain the dominant fronts, the BJP's ability to cut into both vote banks has turned what was once a bipolar contest into a three-way fight, with the BJP now holding the seat.

What Comes Next for Kerala's Political Landscape

The BJP's three-seat haul, while modest, gives the party a legislative foothold in a state where it has long struggled to gain traction. The victories in Nemom and Kazhakkoottam, both in the state capital region, could serve as springboards for future expansion. However, the party's failure to improve its overall vote share suggests that its gains are concentrated in specific pockets rather than reflecting a statewide shift. Several prominent BJP candidates faced defeat, including Sobha Surendran in Palakkad, former state president K Surendran in Manjeshwaram (who lost by over 32,000 votes), and Union Minister George Kurian. The party's challenge will be to translate its localized successes into broader support, particularly as the Congress-led opposition prepares to form the next government after defeating the ten-year-old LDF administration.

The bottom line

• V Muraleedharan's 428-vote win in Kazhakkoottam ended CPI(M)'s hold on the seat and gave the BJP its second assembly victory in Kerala since 2016.
• The BJP won three seats overall—Nemom, Kazhakkoottam, and Chathannoor—while its statewide vote share remained nearly flat at 11.4%.
• Kadakampally Surendran's defeat was attributed in part to BJP's campaign over Sabarimala gold theft allegations.
• Kazhakkoottam has transformed from a Congress stronghold to a triangular contest, with the BJP now holding the seat.
• The BJP's victories are concentrated in Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts, indicating localized rather than statewide gains.
• The Congress-led UDF is set to form the next government, ending the LDF's decade-long rule.