Hour of the Technocrat

The BJP’s Kerala gambit in form of Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s elevation marks a strategic shift, but can he deliver?

Kerala

Few figures in Kerala’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have commanded as much attention in recent years as Rajeev Chandrasekhar. The suave technocrat-turned-politician, once the BJP’s great hope for breaking the Congress-Left duopoly in Thiruvananthapuram, has now been elevated to state president. His appointment marks a shift in the party’s strategy, an acknowledgment that its traditional playbook has yielded little in a state where Hindutva appeals have fallen flat. But will this pivot work?

As BJP state president, Chandrasekhar faces an unenviable task. The party’s only Lok Sabha win in Kerala, in the form of Suresh Gopi’s victory in Thrissur, came from a celebrity candidate rather than a broader ideological shift. The BJP remains a distant third force in a state where the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Communist-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) dominate political life.

Chandrasekhar was picked to contest Thiruvananthapuram in last year’s Lok Sabha elections. At the time, the BJP seemed to have found its answer to Congress stalwart Shashi Tharoor. Both men exuded the polish that appeals to Kerala’s urban elite: impeccable English, foreign university credentials and an air of cosmopolitan sophistication. Early surveys suggested that Chandrasekhar had a fighting chance. Until the final hours of vote counting, he led Tharoor, only to lose by a slender margin of 16,077 votes.

The BJP has long struggled to crack Kerala’s electoral code. So, Chandrasekhar’s elevation is a calculated gamble. Unlike his predecessors, many of whom were bogged down by controversy, he brings a corporate sheen and a technocratic approach that could appeal to Kerala’s aspirational middle class. His career, spanning telecommunications, media and finance, lends credibility to his rhetoric on development and technology, which he vigorously pushed during his Lok Sabha campaign.

That campaign, notably, avoided overt communal rhetoric. Earlier, Chandrshekhar’s remarks following the 2023 Kalamassery blasts which linked the attack to “appeasement politics” and “jihad” had landed him in legal trouble.However, observers predict that a balancing act, between development-focused pragmatism and ideological posturing, will define his leadership in Kerala. With the BJP eager to court Christian voters, a demographic that has shown tentative signs of engagement with the party, Chandrasekhar will have to avoid alienating this bloc while also consolidating the BJP’s traditional base.

The BJP’s track record in Kerala has been uninspiring. Multiple state chiefs have been more notable for their gaffes than their electoral successes. KummanamRajasekharan’s unsolicited appearance at the Kochi Metro inauguration became a meme. K. Surendran’s dramatic posturing during the 2018 Sabarimala controversy gained media attention but little else.

Chandrasekhar’s appointment suggests the BJP is betting on competence over theatrics. Yet, his own political journey has been uneven. His attempt to dethrone Tharoor was one of the BJP’s most expensive campaigns in Kerala, featuring star endorsements and extensive media blitzes. Despite this, he failed to break the Congress-Left duopoly. Worse, his credibility took a hit when it emerged that he had not transferred his voter registration from Karnataka, rendering him ineligible to vote in Thiruvananthapuram.

Yet, the national party machinery will not give up on Kerala easily. With Narendra Modi securing a third term, the BJP will likely double down on its southern push, using both development and cultural issues to expand its base. Chandrasekhar’s role will be pivotal in shaping this effort. His challenge is not just to make the BJP competitive in more constituencies but to shed the image of the party as an interloper in Kerala politics.

His ability to do so will depend on whether he can stay disciplined. If he sticks to a message of governance and economic development, he could build credibility beyond the BJP’s core voters. If, however, he succumbs to the temptation of communal rhetoric to energise the base, he could risk reinforcing the very barriers that have kept the BJP out of power in Kerala for decades.