Former DGP R Sreelekha seems to have had it enough as the BJP councillor in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. She has shot off a letter to Mayor V V Rajesh and posted a message in the group of Sasthamangalam ward saying she has quit. The process is not complete, though - she hasn't handed over the letter to the Secretary of the Corporation.

Whenever she is unhappy, she has not quite believed in the idea of subtlety. At the swearing-in ceremony at the corporation after the 2025 Kerala local body elections, Sreelekha sullenly left the hall even before the function was over. It didn't matter to her that the occasion was historic for the BJP, which had wrested the civic body from the LDF for the first time. It was clear that she didn't like the way she was forced to give way for Rajesh.

A few months later, she told an online news portal that she was actually promised the Mayoral post. The BJP tried to cheer her up by offering candidature in Vattiyoorkavu in the Kerala assembly polls 2026. During the campaign, she was again unhappy. An online campaign was held at Mascot Hotel and External Affairs Minister Jaishankar didn't mention her name in his speech. She walked off in a huff, only to return to the venue after a lot of coaxing by the BJP leaders.

Her fellow BJP councillors have not gotten along well with her. They don't like the way she has thrown tantrums and put the party in trouble. Her bureaucratic stint and ambition have always driven a wedge. BJP leaders told Onmanorama that they believe she could be talked into withdrawing her resignation. BJP wants to do that not for administrative stability but for optics. In the first year of BJP's tenure, it had to deal with councillor Sugathan, who was imprisoned under the KAAPA Act, and now it can least afford to have Sreelekha quit the councillor post. She had joined the BJP in 2024, and the move was trumpeted by the BJP as the latest in its mission to lure former bureaucrats to its fold.

Number-wise, her resignation will not rattle the BJP. In the 101-member council, NDA's tally will be 50 if Sreelekha resigns. The party is, however, assured of the support of two independent councillors - Pattoor Radhakrishnan and Sudheesh Kumar. Congress rebel and Poundukadavu councillor Sudheesh Kumar made his allegiance clear in August 2026 when he voted in support of the leave application of jailed BJP councillor R Sugathan. Any crucial agenda can still be passed because the LDF has 29 members and the UDF has 20 councillors. As long as the BJP ensures the presence of 50 councillors, including both independents, during the council meetings, resolutions and agenda can be passed.

A chance of a no-confidence motion is highly unlikely. In June 2026, the Congress had dropped the plan to move a no-confidence motion against the BJP-led council after the CPM refused to support the move. The tension has simmered in the wake of recent street agitations, waving of black flags, and blocking ministers' vehicles by the SFI and DYFI workers. Both CPM and Congress will not, by any means, unite in the capital corporation for a no-confidence motion. They don't have the numbers either. It will still need more than half of the total strength for a no-confidence motion. Both the LDF and the UDF have got 49 councillors and are two short of the golden figure of 51 in the council.

The BJP, which rode the promise of development to bag Thiruvananthapuram corporation, can ill afford a byelection. Opposition Leader K S Sabarinathan has said that the Congress is more than welcome for a bypoll at Sasthamangalam, which had gone to the BJP in 2020 and 2025. A senior BJP leader in Thiruvananthapuram said that Sreelekha has been citing personal reasons for a while. "If the reasons are indeed personal, we will respect that. The party leadership, in all probability, will talk to her. We don't think it is some kind of a bargaining game. She has always listened to the party leadership," he said.