Kasaragod: A Facebook post by BJP Kasaragod district president Ashwini ML, lamenting attempts to “clip her wings”, has brought simmering discontent within the party into the open, just weeks after the local body elections delivered a sobering verdict for the BJP in Manjeshwar.

When contacted, Ashwini said the post was a general reflection and carried no political subtext. However, its timing and tone have been interpreted by political observers as an expression of internal unease and as a response to resistance to her candidature in Manjeshwar, one of the BJP’s most keenly contested Assembly segments. Meanwhile, a section of party workers has seized on the post as an opportunity to school her on political leadership and caution against airing internal differences in public.

Manjeshwar, which the BJP lost by just 89 votes in 2016 and 745 votes in 2021, is seen by the party as an A-category constituency, winnable with the right candidate. But a section in the rank and file does not see Ashwini as that candidate.

In the Facebook post that sparked the chatter, Ashwini (39) wrote in Kannada:

“Jealous enemies, disguised as well-wishers, unable to bear a woman’s growth, try to hinder her flight. Her achievements pain them; her self-confidence burns them like fire. Even then, she does not stop.”

Ashwini said it was not directed at any individual or internal group.

A rare woman at the helm
Of the BJP’s 30 organisational districts in Kerala, only four are headed by women: Kollam East (Raji Prasad), Thrissur West (Nivedita Subramanian), Malappuram West (Deepa Puzhakkal), and Kasaragod (Ashwini M L). Originally from Karnataka, Ashwini married and settled in Manjeshwar. A national executive member of the Bharatiya Janata Mahila Morcha, she often campaigns for the BJP in other states. She served as a member of the Manjeshwar block panchayat from 2020 to 2025. In January 2025, the party’s central leadership elevated her as district president.

Party insiders say she was groomed as a future Manjeshwar candidate, with political work concentrated in the constituency. Her politics is firmly anchored in Hindutva mobilisation, though, notably, without courting reckless communal controversies. Yet, this very rise has fed resentment.

‘Parachuted’ and Delhi-backed?
Within the district unit, Ashwini is often described as a leader “air-dropped from above”, a perception that she is Delhi’s candidate rather than a product of long years of local organisational grind. This has hardened resistance among senior leaders who believe Manjeshwar should go to someone with two decades or more of grassroots work. Going public with that view, BJP Kozhikode zonal vice-president Vijaykumar Rai said: “A victory in Manjeshwar is assured if someone with 20-25 years of grassroots experience is fielded. And there are many such capable workers,” Rai said. Rai, considered close to former state president K Surendran, himself is seen as harbouring ambitions for the seat. He contested in the District Panchayat election from Vorkady division (also in Manjeshwar assembly segment) and lost to Congress's Ali Harshad Vorkady by 5,306 votes.

Sources say several state committee members from Kasaragod district, including Sathish Chandra Bhandary, Balakrishna Shetty, and Suresh Kumar Shetty, are not enthusiastic about Ashwini’s candidature.

Electoral record under scrutiny
Ashwini was the BJP’s candidate from Kasaragod Lok Sabha in 2024. She finished third, as expected, but pushed the party’s total vote count beyond two lakh for the first time. The BJP’s vote share in Kasaragod Lok Sabha stood at 17.74% in 2014 (K Surendran), dipped to 16.13% in 2019 (Ravisha Thanthri Kuntar), and rose to 19.73% in 2024 (Ashwini), a jump of 3.6 percentage points. But much of the gains came not from BJP's strongholds of Kasaragod and Manjeshwar but from Left bastions of Kalliasseri, Payyannur, and Trikaripur, where the party doubled its votes. Surprisingly, Ashwini could not lift the party’s performance in Manjeshwar, considered the hub of Hindutva politics in north Kerala. BJP saw a dip of 75 votes in Manjeshwar segment, polling 57,179 compared to 2019. In Kasaragod Assembly segment, the increase was a modest 0.86%.

Local body polls: the trigger
The local body elections have sharpened the knives. In Manjeshwar Assembly segment, the BJP won only 36 of 162 panchayat wards (22%), down from 40 of 148 (27%) in 2020. The party controls none of the eight panchayats in Manjeshwar. All five BJP-ruled panchayats in the district lie instead in Kasaragod Assembly segment.

In Ashwini’s own Paivalike panchayat (in Manjeshwar), the BJP slipped from eight wards to five. In Puthige, the tally fell from four to two. In Vorkady, it dropped from five to two. In Enmakaje, the BJP declined from eight wards to six.

The most stinging blow came in the district panchayat election, where the BJP lost Puthige division (Manjeshwar Assembly segment), a seat it had held in 2005, 2015, and 2020, even with relatively lesser-known candidates.

This time, the Congress fielded Somashekhara J S, its biggest Kannada-speaking face in the region. He defeated BJP district vice-president Manikanda Rai by 437 votes.

Several grassroots workers say they had urged Ashwini to field K P Anil Kumar, the BJP’s Enmakaje mandalam general secretary. He is known for snatching the Enmakaje division in Manjeshwar block panchayat, considered a “losing” seat, from the Congress in 2020. “We warned her much in advance that the Congress would field Somashekhara,” said a BJP worker from Enmakaje. "She wanted to give the ticket to someone from her panchayat (Paivalike). Anil was from Enmakaje." In the whole of Kerala, Kasaragod is the only district panchayat where the BJP has a member. It should have been two, he said.

Social media rebellion
As Ashwini positions herself as the Manjeshwar candidate, dissent has spilt openly onto social media. Nizar Perwad, a retired government employee and political observer from Kumbla, said the dissent against Ashwini has been brewing on social media for some time. “The mainstream media in Kerala was missing it because the conversations and debates were in Kannada,” he said.

Some supporters urged restraint. “Do not bring internal differences into the open. Our goal is to make the lotus bloom in Kasaragod and Manjeshwar,” wrote Prashanth Perla in response to her post.

Another supporter wrote: “The fire within the house should remain confined to the kitchen alone. As a well-wisher of the community, my humble appeal is that it must not be allowed to spread so far that it ends up burning the entire house down.”

Others were blunter. A grassroots leader commented: “Bring justice, ethics, truth and humility into your actions. Let go of ego and arrogance. Listen to the workers. God will not abandon you.”

In another post, party worker Ganeshkumar Kolanjithody took a sharp swipe at the leadership: “What is the point of giving all posts to those who do not work? Those who became district presidents in four or five years are examples. We don’t work to grab positions; we work for the party.”

Nizar Perwad said the former office-bearers rarely visit the district headquarters now. "Workers openly call her a ‘showgirl’ and a leader parachuted from the top. The local body results have only emboldened them,” he said.

An uneasy road ahead
Despite the unrest, party workers admit that the BJP is likely to field Ashwini in Manjeshwar. “But Manjeshwar is different,” said a mid-level leader. “Any BJP candidate risks consolidation of Muslim votes behind the IUML. The only real chance is an independent candidate with a wider appeal. But taking that call will be difficult for the party because Manjeshwar is a prestigious constituency.”