As the afternoon sun began to dip on the horizon, a flock of Congress workers and a few jeeps equipped with loudspeakers broadcasting the party’s campaign song began to gather outside the Bachalor Jumma Mosque, awaiting the arrival of candidate KS Sabarinadhan. The mosque is located on a narrow road parallel to National Highway 66, about eight kilometers from the city of Thiruvananthapuram, in the Nemom Assembly constituency, one of the hotly contested seats in Kerala, which is witnessing elections.
With the road jammed with evening traffic, Sabarinadhan, a two-time former MLA and son of veteran Congress leader the late G Karthikeyan, soon arrives in a white Innova. Congress cadres rush forward to garland him while some scramble to take selfies. The workers drive him to a roadside shop where he gets a cup of tea, makes a brief speech about the importance of the election and quickly gets into an open jeep to rush towards another corner of the constituency.
Sabarinadhan, a 42-year-old lawyer who entered politics after his father’s death in 2015, is in a hurry as he has to make his presence felt across the constituency that is in the national spotlight. Here in Nemom, a largely urban, middle-class constituency, the BJP won its first and only seat in Kerala in 2016. Much of the “blame” for paving the way to the BJP’s victory here fell on the Congress, which in 2016 allocated the seat to its then-ally the JD(U), which performed poorly. In 2021, the Congress promised to “close the BJP’s arithmetic” and fielded its heavyweight candidate Muralidharan. It increased the party’s vote share by 16%, causing the BJP to lose, but it finished third anyway behind the CPI(M) and the BJP.
Thus, in a contest this time largely billed as a battle between MLA and state education minister V Sivankotty and state BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the votes bagged by Sabarinadhan are expected to be the game-changers. While winning may be a tall order, Sabarinadhan’s performance is likely to determine the fortunes of the CPI(M) and the BJP.
“If the three parties retain their respective voter bases, it will result in a CPI(M) victory like last time. But if there is a decline in vote share in Congress, it is an advantage for the BJP,” said Ibrahim, a coconut worker in his 70s and a long-time Nimu voter.
But Sabarinadhan disagrees with these calculations. He says there is an overwhelming wave building in favor of the Congress-led United Democratic Front in the state, as a sign of public anger against the current LDF government, which will even flip seats like Nemum.
“It is clear that people want a change of power in the state. The BJP is also looking to win here, but its promises after winning the recent Thiruvananthapuram corporation elections have not been fulfilled. There is a feeling among people that the BJP-led Union government has not done anything for the state. So the social conditions are in our favour,” he told HT.
The BJP cadre in Kerala often refers to Nemom as the party’s Gujarat in the state, or its stronghold. Recent poll numbers also point to this trend. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Chandrasekhar as a candidate from Thiruvananthapuram had a lead of 22,000 votes in the constituency and in the 2025 local body polls, the BJP clinched 15 out of the 23 municipal wards falling in the constituency with a margin of more than 5,000 votes.
With Chandrasekhar largely running a professional campaign rooted in development and staying away from controversial topics associated with Hindutva, the BJP believes the lotus can once again flourish in Nemom.
“We are fighting not just to win Mumbai but to win multiple seats in Kerala. Since we have won here in the past, the expectations here are higher. The point is that people have given opportunities to both the Congress and the Left, and all they got is high unemployment and high prices. About 40% of voters here live with open drains and sewers. In 60% of the constituency, there are no motorable roads,” the BJP state president told HT recently.
As part of his campaign, Chandrasekhar released a blueprint for Nemom that includes projects for tourism development, reducing drinking water shortages and generating employment.
CPI(M) V Sivankutty, on the other hand, is counting on his party’s grassroots network, his stint as education minister, and his familiarity among voters as a two-time MLA and former city mayor to help him. Despite being 71 years old and suffering from some health issues, Sivankutty continues to walk through the city’s urban neighborhoods and hold small family meetings to motivate his staff. At one of these family meetings, a few residents approached him and told him that there was an acute shortage of drinking water.
Sivankutty later told HT: “They are able to come to me and express such issues because they know that I will be here for them. I know them even from before as mayor of the city. But the BJP candidate (Chandrasekhar) is Croripati. Will he wait to hear their problems? Can he bear the smell of the sweat of the poor?”
Sivankutty claims he ran out $1000 crore projects in the constituency over the last five years. “Nineteen out of the 23 schools here have got new buildings. I have approved a new Industrial Training Institute (ITI) and built a new promenade along the Karamana River. There is evidence of the development we have achieved here,” he said.
Kerala goes to the polls on April 9, and the votes will be counted on May 4.
