KOCHI: The lacklustre performance of the BJP in the Palakkad bypoll has reignited infighting within the party at a time when state president K Surendran is grappling to rejuvenate the party at the grassroots level ahead of the local body elections in November 2025 and assembly polls in May 2026. The humiliating defeat is particularly embarrassing to Surendran as his term as state president is set to end in February 2025 and he has been hoping for a third consecutive term.
Though the BJP has improved its vote share by five per cent in Chelakkara assembly seat, the unexpected defeat in Palakkad has taken the sheen away from the party which was fancying to win 15 to 20 seats in 2026 assembly polls.
The performance in Palakkad is particularly painful for BJP as the vote share has taken the party 10 years behind. In 2016, Sobha Surendran had secured 40,076 votes in Palakkad increasing the vote share from 19.86% to 29.08%. The vote share increased to 50,220 (35.34%) in 2021 when the party fielded Metroman E Sreedharan. But this time the vote share plunged to 39,246 (28.63%), which is 830 votes lesser than the 2016 tally. Many senior leaders have opined that the BJP could have wrested Palakkad this time if it had fielded Sobha.
Surendran has been lucky to get a second term at the helm of the state unit of BJP where stalwarts like Kummanam Rajasekharan and P Sreedharan Pillai could not complete a single term due to faction feud and sinking vote share. The NDA vote share which stood at 10.53% in 2016 had risen to 15.64% in 2019 but plummeted to 11.3% in 2021 assembly polls. The vote share improved to 19.23% during 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The party was able to secure the Thrissur seat and give a tough fight to the LDF and UDF in Thiruvananthapuram, Attingal and Alappuzha constituencies. In Alappuzha Sobha Surendran increased the vote share from 17.22% to 28.3% garnering 3 lakh votes. The Lok Sabha election results had inspired unity in the state party unit igniting hopes of growing as a force to reckon with in 2026 assembly polls. But the exit of Sandeep Varier and the party’s ignominious defeat in Palakkad has put the state president on a sticky wicket.