‘A double-engine govt. will de-risk people from political conflicts that hurt their development’: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Rajeev Chandrasekhar asserts that a double-engine government will protect citizens from political conflicts, ensuring better development outcomes.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s State president in Kerala, has been leading the party’s charge to make a dent in the Left Democratic Front-United Democratic Front duopoly. He also has his task cut out in the Nemom constituency, where he contests against incumbent MLA and General Education Minister V. Sivankutty of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and former Congress MLA K.S. Sabarinadhan. Back in 2016, the BJP had opened its account for the first time in the Kerala Assembly, when O. Rajagopal won from Nemom. However, having lost the constituency, the BJP was back to zero seats in 2021. The party is now banking on Mr. Chandrasekhar to recapture Nemom. Excerpts from an interview with The Hindu:

BJP had a major breakthrough when it won the Thiruvananthapuram corporation in the local body elections in 2025. But at the same time, the party only had a total vote share of 14.76% across Kerala, compared with nearly 20% in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Are you a bit worried ahead of the Assembly election?

Local body elections are typically not fought along party lines. For us, the local body polls marked a big jump forward. We fielded almost 22,000 candidates, much more than before. The vote share may be at variance with the Lok Sabha election. But the seats that we got spanned the entire State. Earlier, we were restricted to certain pockets around Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram or Thrissur. One of the regions where we had a major loss in votes compared to the Lok Sabha election was Thrissur. That had a lot to do with candidate selection and mistakes in campaign management, due to which we went from 40% in Lok Sabha [polls] to 20% in local body elections in the district. So if you take that one aberration out, we did extremely well.

You have been carrying out an aggressive outreach towards minority communities -- both Muslim and Christian. Do you think you can overcome the apprehensions of these communities, whether it be the issues faced by Muslims or the attacks on nuns and churches in some BJP-ruled States?

Thirty years of fake narratives about the BJP have been force-fed to the minorities, that we are communal and we care only about the Hindus. During the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign in Pozhiyoor in Thiruvananthapuram, an old lady told me, “I am ready to support you, but you should tell your people not to burn our churches”. After I became the party president, we have made it a point to go and meet Malayalis across the State to share our developmental vision and reassure them that we will not harm anyone. Regarding incidents in the north, neither I nor the BJP can speak for all 140 crore Indians, or for all Hindus. If there are crazy individuals out there, who take law into their own hands, the laws of those States must be enforced. I have given an assurance that whenever there is a Malayali in trouble, you can count on me.

Most of these attacks are allegedly carried out by the Bajrang Dal and Vishva Hindu Parishad which are part of the larger Sangh Parivar. Do you think their actions are detrimental to the BJP’s chances in Kerala?