For the second consecutive election in Kerala, a lone triumph of the BJP has usurped the spotlight from the mighty resurrection of the UDF. If in 2024 it was Suresh Gopi's Thrissur Lok Sabha win that stole a resurgent Congress's thunder, this time it is the BJP's formidable win in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. The BJP-led NDA touched 50, very near the magic number of 51.

The wind that propelled the UDF elsewhere in the state deserted the front in Thiruvananthapuram and it barely managed to stay afloat with 19 seats, up from 10 last time. And in its biggest ever loss in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, the CPM, which ruled the corporation for over three decades and with an absolute majority in the last five years, has been shrunk to 29 seats.

In 2020, there was a clear attempt by secular-minded voters in Thiruvananthapuram to apply some kind of a lock on BJP's growth. In supposedly UDF bastions -- say Punchakkary or Pattom or Vattiyoorkavu -- where a BJP victory looked possible, there was a torrential shift of votes from the UDF to the CPM. Even in BJP citadels like Attukal and Kamaleshwaram, there was a substantial shift of traditional Congress votes to the LDF candidates.

In at least 15 wards, from where its candidates had easily secured 1200 and above votes in 2015 and 2020, its candidates polled below 800 votes. The BJP's tally in 2020, as a result, remained stuck at their 2015 number: 35. 

Development gamble
This time, the voters evidently did not feel the need to forcibly pin the BJP down. It was allowed to flourish. On show was the BJP's cultured face.
Under Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the party dumped divisive slogans like 'love jihad' and incendiary canards like the CPM would convert Attukal into another Sabarimala along with its rusted and obsolete election materials from 2020.
The focus was solely on development, 'Viksit Kerala' was the slogan. The state president held a series of 'Viskit Talks' with voters mostly in urban areas during the campaign phase.

Two promises were particularly catchy. One, the prospect of Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself unveiling the corporation's development blueprint within 45 days of the BJP council's swearing in. Two, getting the services of the corporation right at one's doorstep; Chandrasekhar said it would be the first task that the BJP council would take up.

Tech-driven campaign
If most of BJP's claims (except perhaps the declaration that the capital will be one of the venues of the 2036 Olympics) sounded genuine, the tech-savvy campaign the party ran should take the credit.

It was for the first time that voters were given QR-coded voter slips. In fact, the slips had two QR codes, one opening to a message by the BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar and the other to a 'Google Maps'-powered guide to the voter's respective polling booth. It is easy to believe when such a party promises technology-driven service delivery.

Untouched by suicides, scams & follies
There was a reading that the scams in BJP-ruled cooperative societies in Thiruvananthapuram could once again hold back the BJP from ruling the corporation.
The party's hugely popular Thirumala ward councillor Thirumala Anil had committed suicide after the debts of the society he headed grew too heavy for him to bear. It was alleged that certain leaders of the party had taken huge loans from the society and had not paid back. BJP general secretary S Suresh was also accused of sanctioning loans beyond eligibility to party members from another BJP-controlled bank.

The party's repeated house visits, assuring  voters and especially BJP family members that everything would be sorted out worked wonders. The party's candidate P S Devima won Thirumala with a margin of 886 votes, higher than the 283 Anil had secured over his nearest CPM rival R P Sivaji in 2020.

It looked like the BJP had so much momentum going for it that even former DGP R Sreelekha's inappropriate move to post a fake election survey on Facebook on polling day did not dim its chances. In fact, Sreelekha won by an impressive margin of 507 votes over her CPM rival, a young techie named Amritha R.

In 2020, when the BJP first wrested the Sasthamangalam seat from the Congress, its 'giant killer' Madhusoodanan Nair had defeated Congress’s Sasthamangalam Gopan by 397 votes. This time the Congress was pushed to the third position in Sasthamangalam.

However, the suicide of Anand K Thampi, an RSS worker who ended his life after he was denied ticket, did hurt. The BJP lost Thrikkannapuram ward, the seat Thampi sought, to CPM's Ajin S L by 190 votes.
If the BJP could lure voters away from its worst misdeeds and train their focus on development, the CPM was too busy justifying its record of the past five years.

Arya’s disappearance
The CPM was clearly not confident of what it had done and the most telling indication of this was its decision to keep Mayor Arya Rajendran away from the campaign.

It was V K Prasanth, Arya's predecessor, who was the face of the local campaign. Two of its potential mayor candidates -- S I Sundar (Chalai) and Vandithadam Madhu (Poonkulam) -- lost to BJP's S K P Ramesh and Vayalkkara Ratheesh.

CPM and pseudo-secularism
This time, the CPM was not even seen as the secular alternative. In 2020, when Poonthura Siraj, a popular local Muslim leader and once the right hand man of Abdul Nasser Maudany, wanted to contest as an LDF candidate, the CPM leadership sternly said no. This boldness was one of the reasons that prompted many traditional Congress voters to opt for LDF candidates in 2020.

Five years later, the CPM's secular message is scrambled. The party still sounded unsparing when it speaks of what it calls extreme Muslim outfits like Jamaat-e-Islami.

Yet, it is the sound of the CPM's political deception that seems to have carried more clearly to the voter. The very same party that condemns Jamaat-e-Islami as the Islamic version of the RSS encourages with its silence SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappaly Natesan's nasty attempts to whip up Islamophobia.

Congress tragedy
The Congress in Thiruvananthapuram was not part of the Congress armada that virtually stormed the shores of Kerala during this local body polls. Despite the wave in its favour across Kerala, in Thiruvananthapuram the Congress could gain only nine more wards from its 2020 low of 10.

Powdikonam offered a striking example of Congress's poor candidate selection. The ward was won by Sudheesh Kumar, a former Congress mandalam president. He is one of the two Independents who had won from the corporation. Kumar had defeated the CPM, BJP and IUML candidates, securing a commendable lead of 764 over his CPM rival Raju.

UDF's IUML candidate Manvila Sainudheen was a distant fourth with just 181 votes. Sudheesh's rebellion was the result of the Congress decision to field an IUML candidate from Poundukadavu. Last time, the ward was held by CPM's Jisha John defeating Congress's Sherli P by a margin of 869 votes.

Small mercies
Even then there were some satisfactory wins for Congress. Particularly that of Vyshna in Muttada, a CPM bastion. She defeated veteran CPM leader Amshu Vamadevan by 397 votes. In 2020, the CPM's Rinoy T P had won the seat with a margin of 571 votes.

At the start of the campaign, Vyshna's name was arbitrarily removed from the electoral roll and this was widely believed to be the doing of the CPM. She fought her case in court and made the State Election Commission issue a verdict in her favour.

The incident amplified the image of the CPM as ruthless and autocratic. However, this voter-unfriendly snarl the CPM acquired as a result of the Vyshna episode ended up boosting the BJP's chances than the UDF's.

 Congress's K S Sabarinathan was pitted against BJP's 'giant killer' S Madhusoodanan Nair in the ultra urban Kowdiar ward. In 2015, Nair had trounced CPM's mayor candidate K Sreekumar and in 2020, he snatched Sasthamangalam from the Congress.

This time, he was expected to humiliate Sabari. It looked a possibility as in 2020 the Kowdiar ward was won by the Congress candidate Sathikumari by a whisker, by just one vote; her 1140 against BJP candidate Valsalakumari's 1139. Sabari survived the wiles of the BJP 'giant killer', though only by 74 votes.

The UDF could also snatch back coastal wards like Poonthura and Puthenpally from the LDF. The big two local leaders who left the Congress for BJP also lost. Thampanoor Satheesh, once a Sashi Tharoor loyalist, came third in Thampanoor, a city ward won by Congress veteran R Harikumar. K Maheshwaran Nair, a former Congress councillor, lost to CPM's Vilappil area secretary by 507 votes in Punnakkamugal ward.

Jackpot winner
Besides former Congress mandalam president Sudheesh, Patoor Radhakrishnan, who won from Kannammoola by a margin of 362 votes, is the other Independent. Radhakrishnan is seen as the probable candidate whose support could take the BJP to the simple majority figure of 51 seats.