Thiruvananthapuram: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Thiruvananthapuram district committee on Thursday named VV Rajesh as the mayoral candidate for the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, putting an end to speculation that former DGP R Sreelekha would be chosen for the post.

Karumom ward councillor Asha Nath G S will be the deputy mayor. Elections to the mayor and deputy mayor posts will be held in all corporations across the state on Friday.

Contesting from the Kodunganoor ward, Rajesh won by a margin of 515 votes in the 2025 local body polls. A state secretary of the BJP, Rajesh, has earlier served as the party’s Thiruvananthapuram district president and as the former state president of the Yuva Morcha, the BJP’s youth wing.

Asha Nath, who secured her third consecutive victory, won by a margin of 1,089 votes. She had earlier won the Pappanamcode ward in the 2020 Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation elections. In the local body polls held on December 9, the BJP secured 50 of the 101 seats in the corporation.