Bihar voters have spoken; Kerala will repeat the outcome: Ex-Kerala BJP chief K Surendran

Kochi: At a press conference held here on Friday, K Surendran, former state president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kerala, asserted that the electoral verdict in Bihar offers a blueprint for Kerala’s political future.

“The people of Bihar have decided not to be ruled by the corrupt,” Surendran said, pointing to the defeat of the Congress-led campaign in that state.

He claimed that in Bihar, “minority constituencies also stood by the NDA,” and urged voters in Kerala to draw inspiration from that outcome. According to him, the verdict “sends a message that the NDA will come to power in Kerala too.” 

Surendran offered a sharply critical take on the political establishment in Kerala, charging that the state has been dominated by “corrupt” forces and that the BJP-led alliance should build on the momentum he says is visible in Bihar.

He argued that the people of Bihar rejected what he described as “divide-and-rule” politics and communal appeals from the Congress, and that this should encourage a similar push in Kerala.

Political analysts, however, caution that while Bihar and Kerala share certain electoral features, the two states also differ significantly in demographic composition, political alignments and recent voting behaviour.

For example, the 2024 general elections in Kerala show that while the NDA made some gains, it still trails the dominant alliances in terms of vote share.

In the press conference, Surendran emphasised that the NDA must now aggressively pursue constituencies in Kerala, including those with significant minority populations.

He argued that if the minority voters in Bihar could back the NDA, then “Kerala’s minorities too, can,” provided the BJP and its allies articulate credible governance narratives and break the hold of what he called “corrupt incumbents”.

Kerala’s political field is already heating up ahead of the next assembly election, with the BJP and its allies in the NDA facing a formidable challenge from the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front and the Congress-headed United Democratic Front.

Surendran’s remarks signal that the BJP is attempting to portray its push in Kerala not as a fringe effort, but as a nationwide wave.

Though the BJP has been steadily expanding its footprint in Kerala, electoral breakthroughs at the assembly level remain elusive. Surendran’s invocation of Bihar’s model is clearly aimed at mobilising both majority and minority voters, and at persuading sceptics that political change in Kerala is possible.