Considering the target it had set for itself, BJP's was the most disappointing performance of the just concluded local body polls in Kerala.

The target was 25 per cent vote share in the state, an ambitious goal, given that 14.80 per cent was its achievement in 2020. The 25 per cent surge was supposed to be achieved by winning two corporations, at least 10 municipalities, more than 30 block panchayats and over 300 grama panchayats.

Here is what the BJP ended up with. Corporations - One (Thiruvananthapuram). Municipalities - Two (Palakkad, Tripunithura). Block Panchayats - Zero. Grama Panchayats - 26. This was a marginal improvement from 2020 figures: Corporations - Zero; Municipalities – Two; Block Panchayats - One; Grama Panchayats - 12.

This time, the NDA had fielded 21,065 candidates, nearly 90 per cent of the 23,576 wards that went to polls; and this was nearly 8000 more than in 2020. Yet, the final tally for the NDA did not reflect the increase in the front's participation in this year's local body polls.

If in 2020, it had won 1182 wards in panchayats, it was 1447 this time, an increase of 265 wards. Last time, NDA candidates won 37 block panchayat wards. This time it was 54.

Last time, the NDA won two wards in district panchayats. This time, it could manage just one. Last time, in municipalities, the NDA had secured 320 wards. It is almost the same this time: 324. In 2020, it won in 59 corporation wards. This time, including the 50 in Thiruvananthapuram, it secured 93.

 The win in Thiruvananthapuram is massive. From just 34 seats, the party pole-vaulted to power. It put in place a technology-driven, people-friendly campaign. Since the party has never been tested in Kerala, it projected itself as the alternative to the "corrupt two": the UDF and the LDF. Focus was solely on service delivery and performance. It also helped that divisive issues like 'love jihad' were set aside.

In Thiruvananthapuram alone the strategy worked. Elsewhere, it failed to emerge as a serious contender. Even in citadels like Palakkad municipality, it floundered. It just about managed to hold on to Palakkad Municipality. With only 25 seats (down from 28), it is still short of the simple majority mark of 27.

It lost Pandalam Municipality, under which falls Sabarimala, to five years of internal squabbles and misgovernance. In the municipality, it had ruled with an absolute majority of 20 seats, it is now third, reduced to nine seats. Interestingly, in a classic example of counter-intuitive development, the LDF that was supposed to be hindered by the Sabarimala gold scandal, instead, trounced the BJP in a pro-faith municipality like Pandalam.

BJP's famed political fertility is somehow dormant in Kerala. For instance, even after Suresh Gopi's historic 2024 win, the BJP could not make any gains in Thrissur. It came up zero in grama and block panchayats in the district, and would continue to be a fringe player in all the seven municipalities except Kodungallur where it has retained its number two status but with reduced number of seats (21 down to 18).

In Varkala Municipality, where it was in a position to rule had it enlisted the support of Independents in 2020, it has been reduced to a distant second by the LDF.

The party's experiment to field Christian candidates in central Travancore districts like Kottayam and Pala failed big time. None of its Christian candidates won. In Kattappana municipality's Vettikuzhakavala ward that was won by the Congress, for instance, the BJP's Christian candidate Bony Thomas could bag just 11 votes. Most of BJP's Christian candidates in Idukki's Kattappana Municipality scored in the 20-60 range, and invariably finished last.

And like in 2019, the resentment of the faithful, stoked by the exploitation of the Sabarimala shrine, powered UDF's chances and not BJP's.