Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress–Muslim League-led UDF will be restricted to 40–50 seats in the upcoming Assembly elections, and there is no possibility of the Left Front returning to power, BJP state president and NDA candidate from Nemom, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, has said. He also asserted that this would be the last election in Kerala to witness a triangular contest. Chandrasekhar was speaking in a pre-poll interaction with a national media house.
He described the election as the most crucial battle in the state’s electoral history and expressed confidence that the BJP-led NDA would emerge as a decisive political force. According to him, Keralam’s political landscape will undergo a major shift after 2026, leading to a bipolar contest between the NDA and the ‘I.N.D.I Alliance’.
NDA’s rise and UDF’s decline
Chandrasekhar argued that the UDF’s expectations of consolidating Muslim votes would not materialise and that anti-incumbency sentiment would not favour them. He maintained that the average Malayali would not accept the UDF allegation that the CPI(M) acts as a “B team” of the BJP, pointing out that the long history of political violence between the two parties contradicts such claims. He further stated that it is impossible for the Congress to become a “B team” of the BJP, as one of the BJP’s primary political objectives is to eliminate the Congress. Instead, he alleged that the real understanding exists between the CPI(M) and the Congress.
He accused the Congress of attempting to consolidate votes through the Muslim League and Jamaat-e-Islami, while emphasising that not all Muslims align with these groups. Similarly, he noted that it would be incorrect to assume that all Christians support the Congress. Citing an NDA survey, Chandrasekhar reiterated that the UDF would be confined to 40–50 seats. He questioned that if the UDF were confident of winning 100 seats, there would be no need to raise allegations such as “A team” and “B team.”
Referring to a BJP-conducted survey last November, Chandrasekhar said that 68 per cent of Malayalis are dissatisfied with both the UDF and LDF, while around 62 per cent consider Prime Minister Narendra Modi a better political leader. In this context, he argued that the NDA is emerging as a credible third alternative, capable of making significant inroads. He concluded that both the LDF and UDF are likely to lose several constituencies that were once considered their strongholds.
