By Ananya Sharma 
Thiruvananthapuram, December 13: By the time counting crossed noon, it was obvious that the day was not going to settle into anything familiar. Results from one ward after another began stacking up in a way that made seasoned Kerala watchers glance twice at their screens. This was not a marginal swing or a local blip. The capital was slipping out of old hands.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has emerged just a seat short of majority control in the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation, winning 50 of the 100 wards, according to figures reported by The Economic Times. In Kerala’s political grammar, that sentence alone carries more weight than most election-night declarations.
This city does not usually behave like this.
When Thiruvananthapuram Stops Obeying Habit
For decades, the capital’s civic body has been a predictable contest between the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). The BJP hovered at the edges, occasionally loud, occasionally hopeful, but never central.
That arrangement broke on Friday.
As The Indian Express noted, the result ends a 45-year run of Left control in the capital’s corporation. Congress, too, finds itself displaced in a city it has long claimed moral ownership of, especially during parliamentary elections.
Thiruvananthapuram is not just another corporation. It is where governance failures echo fastest. Where bureaucrats live next to voters. Where waste piles and flooded roads become daily talking points, not abstract policy debates.
This is why the result landed with such force.
The BJP’s Bet On Faces And Fatigue
There was no single dramatic surge that explains the NDA’s performance. Instead, what unfolded looked like attrition. Ward by ward, familiar equations failed.
The win of R. Sreelekha, a retired IPS officer, from Sasthamangalam, reported by The Economic Times, captured the BJP’s strategy in the city. Candidates with recognisable public careers. Less ideological posturing. More talk of administration, order, and delivery.
Across middle-class neighbourhoods, campaign conversations revolved around the same grievances. Garbage clearance. Road repairs. Water shortages arrive every summer and promises that evaporate just as reliably. BJP workers argue they listened longer than others. Rivals say the opposition vote fractured. Both claims have merit.
What cannot be brushed aside is the scale of the shift.
Shashi Tharoor Acknowledges The Ground Has Moved
Reactions were telling, but none more so than that of Shashi Tharoor, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram. According to The Economic Times, Tharoor described the BJP’s showing as a “notable shift” in the city’s political landscape.
In Kerala politics, such phrasing is rare. Losses are usually wrapped in qualifiers, explained away as local glitches. Tharoor did neither. His response signalled something Congress insiders privately admit. Urban Thiruvananthapuram is no longer voting on reputation alone.
Publicly, Congress leaders have stressed that local body elections follow their own logic. That Assembly and Lok Sabha contests remain a different battlefield. That may well be true. But the capital is where symbols matter, and this one stings.
A Statewide Result That Refuses To Align
Zoom out, and Kerala’s verdict resists neat packaging. As The Indian Express reported through the day, the UDF has swept several municipalities and corporations across the state. The LDF has retained significant ground, especially in rural panchayats.
Polling for the local body elections was held between December 9 and 11, with counting on December 13. Millions voted, and they did not vote uniformly.
Instead, the results suggest something more complicated. A voter willing to separate civic governance from ideology. To punish incumbents locally while maintaining loyalty elsewhere. In Thiruvananthapuram, that calculation tilted sharply against the old order.
Why The Capital Changes The Equation
Control, or near-control, of the capital’s corporation gives the BJP something it has never really had in Kerala. A chance to be judged on governance rather than rhetoric.
As India Today pointed out, Thiruvananthapuram has long been seen as a Congress stronghold, especially in parliamentary terms. Cracking the city at the municipal level does not guarantee future victories. But it does puncture the idea that the BJP is forever confined to the margins here.
Every pothole filled or ignored from now on will carry political consequences.
The Left’s Quiet Alarm Bells
For the LDF, the loss cuts deeper than numbers suggest. Urban governance has been one of its strongest claims. Losing the capital after decades of control forces difficult conversations.
Left leaders have blamed local anti-incumbency and organisational issues, insisting their ideological base remains intact. Yet, as The Indian Express observed, a defeat of this magnitude in the state’s administrative centre cannot be filed away as routine.
It will shape internal debates long after the counting halls empty.
What Comes After The Surprise
The BJP has avoided loud celebration. There is awareness, even within the party, that Kerala has a habit of humbling early optimism. Local body victories have misled before.
Still, this is not nothing. A near-majority in the capital’s corporation changes how the party is perceived by voters and rivals alike.
For now, Kerala’s 2025 local body elections leave everyone slightly unsettled. The UDF wins broadly but loses ground where it hurts. The LDF retains depth but loses its crown jewel. And the BJP finally has something concrete in the state’s most-watched city.
In Thiruvananthapuram, banners will come down quickly. What remains is administration. Budgets. Garbage contracts. Council meetings that now carry the weight of expectation.
The city has spoken once. It will be watching closely.
Stay ahead with Hindustan Herald — bringing you trusted news, sharp analysis, and stories that matter across Politics, Business, Technology, Sports, Entertainment, Lifestyle, and more.
Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, YouTube, and join our Telegram community @hindustanherald for real-time updates.
Covers Indian politics, governance, and policy developments with over a decade of experience in political reporting.
- Ananya Sharmahttps://hindustanherald.in/authors/ananya/
- Ananya Sharmahttps://hindustanherald.in/authors/ananya/
- Ananya Sharmahttps://hindustanherald.in/authors/ananya/
- Ananya Sharmahttps://hindustanherald.in/authors/ananya/
