Will fight 2026 assembly polls from Nemom: Kerala BJP prez
BJP Kerala chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar announced he will contest the 2026 Assembly elections from Nemom constituency, marking a bold move for the party.
Thiruvananthapuram: BJP Kerala chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar declared on Tuesday that he would contest the 2026 Assembly elections from Nemom constituency.
Chandrasekhar’s remarks came at a press briefing organised by the Thrissur Press Club in the light of the ensuing local body polls.
To a reporter’s question on whether he would fight the Assembly polls next year, the BJP leader replied, “100%, I will fight. You can write it down. Do you want to know the constituency? It’s Nemom.”
Nemom constituency in Thiruvananthapuram district was won by the BJP’s O Rajagopal in the 2016 Assembly polls and is the only seat the party has ever won in Kerala. In the 2021 polls, BJP’s Kummanam Rajasekharan lost to CPM’s V Sivankutty in Nemom by 3949 votes.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Chandrasekhar, then as the BJP candidate in Thiruvananthapuram, had a lead of over 22,000 votes in the Nemom segment. However, he lost out to Shashi Tharoor of the Congress by 16,077 votes.
Chandrasekhar’s declaration of his own candidacy is surprising, as the BJP follows a system where the party’s highest body, Parliamentary Board, approves candidates after rigorous discussions at the state and national level. The BJP’s state unit has so far not initiated internal discussions on candidates for next year’s Assembly polls.
