Kerala Assembly polls 2026: In Kazhakuttam, a three-cornered battle unfolds as pan-Kerala and local issues collide

Kazhakuttam's 2026 Assembly polls feature a competitive three-way race focusing on local development and emerging controversies.

On either side of the railway gates at Station Kadavu, motorists wait impatiently for the train to pass. Soon, a rumble is heard and the north-bound Netravati Express whizzes past. As the last coach vanishes and the gates finally open, there is a scramble to be the first to get across. For the local people, this is a scene that repeats itself over and over as if in a time-loop. A bridge over the line would help, but right now it remains a mere hope.

Some minutes later, V. Muraleedharan, a former Union Minister who is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate in the Kazhakuttam Assembly constituency for the April 9 elections, alights from a car and is immediately surrounded by party workers. Mr. Muraleedharan enters a nearby shop and asks the man who runs it, “Do you live here or across the tracks?” Given the density of rail traffic here, the question appears to be a pertinent one. Mr. Muraleedharan moves on, promising a solution if he gets elected.

Such questions and issues are what makes this constituency in Thiruvananthapuram district distinctive. It is a segment where candidates are expected to handle burning pan-Kerala issues and the purely local with equal panache.

For instance, former Minister Kadakampally Surendran,  the sitting Communist Party of India (Marxist (CPI(M)) MLA, begins giving a soundbyte for The Hindu by explaining what he has done to resolve the drinking water shortage in the constituency and promote development, and slides easily into how he is being unfairly targeted by the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the BJP in the Sabarimala gold theft case. Regional development is high on the agenda of Congress candidate T. Saratchandra Prasad, a former MLA who says his party has entrusted him the “mission” of recapturing the erstwhile UDF stronghold.

With just days left for the April 9 Assembly polls, the spotlight, like the summer sun, beats down hard on Kazhakuttam. Mr. Surendran is looking for a third straight win, but the BJP’s presence as a formidable contender cannot be ignored. Rapidly-evolving Kazhakuttam is home to the Technopark, a factor that influences the development perspectives for the sprawling constituency as a whole. The BJP draws confidence from the fact that its candidates – Mr. Muraleedharan in 2016 and Sobha Surendran in 2021 – ended the race in second position. This time, the Congress is banking on the Mr. Sarathchandra Prasad, a familiar face of the party in the district, to recover lost ground.

Interestingly, the Sabarimala temple has figured prominently in Kazhakuttam’s poll battles. If it was the women entry issue that the LDF had had to contend with five years ago, this time it is the gold theft controversy which the BJP and the Congress are using to trip Mr. Surendran. But he remains unfazed.