KOCHI: The lacklustre performance of the BJP in the Palakkad bypoll has reignited infighting within the party at a time when state president K Surendran is grappling to rejuvenate the party at the grassroots level ahead of the local body elections in November 2025 and assembly polls in May 2026. The humiliating defeat is particularly embarrassing to Surendran as his term as state president is set to end in February 2025 and he has been hoping for a third consecutive term.
Though the BJP has improved its vote share by five per cent in Chelakkara assembly seat, the unexpected defeat in Palakkad has taken the sheen away from the party which was fancying to win 15 to 20 seats in 2026 assembly polls.
The performance in Palakkad is particularly painful for BJP as the vote share has taken the party 10 years behind. In 2016, Sobha Surendran had secured 40,076 votes in Palakkad increasing the vote share from 19.86% to 29.08%. The vote share increased to 50,220 (35.34%) in 2021 when the party fielded Metroman E Sreedharan. But this time the vote share plunged to 39,246 (28.63%), which is 830 votes lesser than the 2016 tally. Many senior leaders have opined that the BJP could have wrested Palakkad this time if it had fielded Sobha.
