# Bharatiya Janata Party, Kerala

The Bharatiya Janata Party,Keralam or simply, BJP Keralam (BJP; ; lit. 'Indian People's Party'), is the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party of the Kerala. Its head office is situated at the Mararji Bhavan, Opposite Thycaud House, Thycaud, Thiruvananthapuram.The current president of Kerala BJP is K Surendran. It is an opposition party in Kerala even though the principal opposition party is Congress lead UDF. Till date BJP is unsuccessful in forming a government in Kerala.

## Electoral history

The electoral performance of BJP in Kerala is mostly unsuccessful. Till date BJP is able to produce only one legislator and one Member of Parliament from the state even though it is successful in increasing its vote share.
The best electorial performance of BJP in Kerala Legislative Assembly was done by O Rajagopal. In the 2011 Assembly elections he contested from the Nemom constituency in Thiruvananthapuram, but eventually lost by a margin of 6,400 votes. He lost the by-election from Neyyattinkara, which was held on 2 June 2012. However, he increased the BJP votes from 6,730 (2011 Assembly Election) to 30,507; an almost five-fold increase within a span of a year. The BJP vote share also significantly increased from 6.0% in the 2011 election to 23.2%.He then contested in Aruvikkara by-election and finished third, although his personal influence ensured that in the contest BJP increased votes from 7,694 to 34,145 causing division of anti-incumbency vote resulting in the victory of UDF. In the 2016 Assembly elections he contested from Nemom and defeated the sitting MLA V. Sivankutty, by a margin of 8,671 votes creating history and becoming the first MLA to enter Kerala Legislative Assembly from BJP at the age of 87.
Suresh Gopi created history by becoming the first person to be elected from Kerala to Parliament on BJP ticket.He won the election with a majority of over 74,000 votes. Of the seven assembly constituencies that make up the Thrissur Lok Sabha segment, Suresh Gopi was ahead in six, except Guruvayoor: Manalur by 8,013 votes, Ollur by 10,363 votes, Thrissur by 14,117 votes, Nattika by 13,945 votes, Irinjalakuda by 13,016 votes and Puthukad by 12,692 votes. He was appointed as the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, as well as the Minister of State for Tourism, in the third Modi ministry in June 2024.

### Lok Sabha elections

| Year | Contested | Seats won | Change in votes | Total votes | % of votes |
| 1991 | 19 | 0 / 20 | | 656,945 | 4.6% |
| 1996 | 18 | 0 / 20 | | 807,607 | 5.6% |
| 1998 | 20 | 0 / 20 | | 1,192,046 | 8% |
| 1999 | 14 | 0 / 20 | | 1,008,047 | 6.6% |
| 2004 | 19 | 0 / 20 | | 1,566,569 | 10.4% |
| 2009 | 19 | 0 / 20 | | 1,011,563 | 6.3% |
| 2014 | 18 | 0 / 20 | | 1,856,750 | 10.5% |
| 2019 | 15 | 0 / 20 | | 2,635,810 | 13% |
| 2024 | 16 | 1 / 20 | 1 | 3,331,250 | 16.8% |

### Legislative Assembly elections

| Year | Contested | Seats won | Change in votes | Total votes | % of votes |
| 1982 | 69 | 0 / 140 | 0 | 263,331 | 2.8% |
| 1987 | 116 | 0 / 140 | 0 | 718,261 | 5.8% |
| 1991 | 137 | 0 / 140 | 0 | 674,525 | 4.8% |
| 1996 | 127 | 0 / 140 | 0 | 781,090 | 5.5% |
| 2001 | 123 | 0 / 140 | 0 | 789,764 | 5.0% |
| 2006 | 136 | 0 / 140 | 0 | 738,244 | 4.7% |
| 2011 | 138 | 0 / 140 | 0 | 1,053,654 | 6.0% |
| 2016 | 98 | 1 / 140 | 1 | 2,129,726 | 10.6% |
| 2021 | 115 | 0 / 140 | 1 | 2,354,468 | 11.4% |

## Leadership

In 1980, the Janata Party split and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was formed. O Rajagopal then served as its Kerala president until 1985.
K G Marar became the second president and served from 1985 to 1990.
In January 2010 V Muralidharan was elected as the State President of the Kerala BJP. He was elected for his second term in the office in January 2013..Under his leadership, the kerala BJP had a vote share of 10.8 percent in the 2014 Lok Sabha Election whereas it only recorded 6.4 percent in 2009. The total votes BJP got in the local body elections was nearly 28 Lakhs. The 2014–2015 membership drive has expanded the party membership base from 5.75 lakhs to 20 lakhs.
Kummanam Rajeshekar became the state president on 2015.
K Surendran was appointed the state president of Bharatiya Janata Party on February 15, 2020.

### List of presidents

| No | Name | Period | Period | Period | Period |
| 1 | O. Rajagopal | 1980 | 1985 | | | 5 years |
| 2 | K. G. Marar | 1985 | 1990 | 1994 | 1995 | 6 years |
| 3 | K Raman Pillai | 1990 | 1994 | | | 4 years |
| 4 | K V Sreedharan Master | 1995 | 1998 | | | 3 years |
| 5 | C K Padmanabhan | 1998 | 2003 | | | 5 years |
| 6 | P. S. Sreedharan Pillai | 2003 | 2006 | 2018 | 2019 | 4 year |
| 7 | P K Krishnadas | 2006 | 2009 | | | 3 years |
| 8 | V. Muraleedharan | 2009 | 2015 | | | 5 years |
| 9 | Kummanam Rajasekharan | 2015 | 2018 | | | 3 years |
| 10 | K Surendran | 2020 | | | | present |