Triangular contest continues in Kerala as BJP eyes next Assembly polls

BJP begins strategising for next Assembly polls; Modi says 'saffron sun' rising in Bengaluru. Archis Mohan writes

In Kerala, despite a clear majority for the Congress-led United Democratic Fund (UDF), there is no clarity yet on who will be the next Chief Minister.

 

The party’s top brass, including president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, met the three main contenders — party general secretary (organisation) and Alappuzha MP K C Venugopal, leader of opposition in the outgoing Assembly V D Satheesan and six-time MLA from Haripad Ramesh Chennithala — for over three hours on Saturday.  Deepa Dasmunshi, Congress general secretary in charge of Kerala, said after the meeting that the high command had time until May 23 to finalise the CM candidate. She further appealed to party workers not to indulge in public displays of their chief ministerial choices. 

Senior Congress leader K Muraleedharan said on Sunday that party workers were bound to accept the high command's decision. He added that the decision on the CM would likely be made by Monday. 

Meanwhile, Himanta Biswa Sarma was elected on Sunday as the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the Assam Assembly, paving way for his second stint as the CM. The NDA, which won 102 of the total 126 seats, secured a two-thirds majority in the Assembly polls. The BJP bagged 82 seats, and its allies Asom Gana Parishad and Bodo People’s Front won 10 each. Sarma and his council of ministers will take the oath on May 12 at the Khanapara Veterinary College in Guwahati. Sarma, who became CM after the 2021 Assembly polls, will be the only non-Congress CM to assume office for two successive terms in Assam. 

In West Bengal, CM Suvendu Adhikari, who took the oath of office on Saturday along with five ministers, is slated to overhaul the state’s police and administrative machinery. Hours after the ceremony, the new government appointed retired IAS officer Subrata Gupta, who had served as the poll panel’s Special Roll Observer in the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise, as an advisor to the CM, while Shantanu Bala, additional district magistrate of South 24 Parganas, was appointed private secretary to the CM. At least 46 West Bengal Civil Service (Executive) officers who served as private secretaries and officers on special duty to ministers in the outgoing regime were reassigned to new postings. Sixteen officers attached to the Chief Minister's Office were also reshuffled. 

Both Sarma and Adhikari spent a majority of their political careers in the Congress and Trinamool Congress, respectively. Sarma joined the BJP in 2015, while Adhikari joined the party in 2020. The two are the latest entries in a growing list of BJP CMs who did not spend their formative political journey in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its affiliated organisations. The trend is prominent in states where the BJP’s electoral footprint has been weak since its founding in 1980. 

In April, Samrat Choudhary became Bihar’s first BJP CM. Choudhary started his political career with the Rashtriya Janata Dal, and has also been in Janata Dal (United) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular). Manik Saha, who became the CM of Tripura in 2022, was in the Congress before joining the BJP in 2016. Others include Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu, who was in the Congress before joining the BJP. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed BJP workers on Sunday in Bengaluru, Karnataka and Hyderabad, Telangana — both are currently ruled by the Congress. 

“Frustrated by the misrule of the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi and the current Congress government, Telangana is looking towards the BJP. The unprecedented support we are receiving underscores that our party is the top choice for Telangana,” he said in a social media post on Saturday. In Hyderabad, Modi virtually laid the foundation stone and inaugurated development projects worth around ₹9,400 crore in Telangana. He also inaugurated India’s first functional PM MITRA Park for the textile industry in Warangal, developed at a cost of ₹1,695.54 crore. 

In Bengaluru, Modi accused the Congress of “failing” to provide good governance due to internal power struggles and of “betraying” people. He said that a “saffron sun” was rising from Bengaluru. Karnataka is slated for polls in May 2028 and Telangana by the end of the same year. He said the BJP has increased its MLAs in Kerala from 1 to 3, and the days are not far when “we will achieve majority.” 

The BJP has now shifted its focus to the next round of Assembly polls to be held in February-March 2027 in a bid to retain Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand, and to wrest Punjab from the incumbent Aam Aadmi Party government. Union Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to hold a padyatra in Punjab in the coming months. In UP, the council of ministers was expanded on Sunday with six new ministers inducted.