Why Kerala isn’t buying Modi claim of ‘double-digit’ win in India election
Al Jazeera
In India’s only state where the BJP has never won a seat, demographics and history remain stumbling blocks for the PM.
Thiruvananthapuram, India – On a sweltering April afternoon, India’s junior Information Technology Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar emerged from his air-conditioned SUV outside a prominent Hindu temple in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of the southern Indian state of Kerala.
Wearing a traditional dhoti and a silk shawl draped over his shoulders, he stood reverently, his hands folded, before the idol of the Pazhavangadi Ganapathy Temple, the elephant-headed god who is believed to be the remover of obstacles, before proceeding to greet a crowd of about 500 people waiting for him.
Chandrasekhar, an affluent entrepreneur-turned-politician, is contesting the Thiruvananthapuram parliamentary seat in India’s mammoth general election, which started on April 19. All the 20 constituencies in Kerala will vote on Friday, April 26 – the second phase of the seven-stage election.
Given Kerala’s political landscape and history, the 59-year-old candidate fielded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) might need divine intervention to secure a win.
Kerala is the only one of India’s major states where the BJP has never won a national seat, though it has seen a steady rise in its voter support, from 1.75 percent in 1984 to 13 percent in 2019.
