National attention reaches Nemom, a suburb in the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram, every time there’s an election in Kerala.
Long before Nemom elected the first ever Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator in Kerala in 2016, political parties found it a prestigious constituency, according to historian Malayinkeezhu Gopalakrishnan, a resident of the constituency.
Nemom geographically connected the two capitals – the older Padmanabhapuram before Kerala formation, and the newer city of Thiruvananthapuram after the reorganisation of states in 1956. Culturally too Nemom could boast a place in history – this was where Merryland Studio, one of the two major production houses that made most of Malayalam cinema, set up shop.
The Communist Party of India – undivided and forming the first ever elected government of the state – won the seat in 1957, only to lose it to an ally of its rival the next time. Nemom was also the electoral launch pads for heavyweights like P Vishwambaran, who began his career with the Praja Socialist Party, and S Varadarajan Nair of the Congress. In the years that followed, Nemom has swung towards the Left parties and the Congress or its allies.
The BJP was not yet in the picture till the turn of the century when their vote shares increased. In 2016, it gave BJP their first Assembly seat through O Rajagopal.
In 2024, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who contested the Lok Sabha polls, had a lead of 22,000 votes in the Nemom segment.
It was a segment that gave Kummanam Rajasekharan a lead in 2019, when he contested the Lok Sabha election from Thiruvananthapuram. The lead was by 12,000 votes, no small number.
In 2025 local body polls, BJP won 18 out of 24 wards in Nemom, displaying their dominance.
As Nemom heads to polls in 2026, all eyes are on Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who lost to Congress’ Shashi Tharoor after a close fight in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Taking him on are LDF’s Education and Labour Minister V Sivankutty, Nemom’s sitting legislator, and KS Sabarinadhan, Congress councillor and former legislator.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, apart from Nemom, had also led in two other constituencies – Kazhakuttam and Vattiyoorkavu in 2024. There were no surprises when he picked Nemom which gave him the highest margin.
Nemom: A short electoral history
The prominence of Nemom grew in 1982 when K Karunakaran, one of the tallest leaders of the Congress party, contested from both Nemom and his traditional seat of Mala for the Assembly election. It happened after a party meeting in Malayinkeezhu in Nemom witnessed infighting over the seat by groups with allegiance to.the Karunakaran group and the Antony group. The factionalism had grown after the Emergency of 1975. Karunakaran, known as The Leader, quipped that he may have to contest himself. They took him seriously and everyone else withdrew from the race.
Karunakaran won grandly from both the seats. In Nemom, he gathered more than 36,000 votes, defeating his rival from the CPI (M) by over 3300 votes. The BJP fell into a distant third place with 1622 votes, scoring not even one twentieth the share of its rivals.
But that was 1982. Thirty four years later, in 2016, the numbers would swing so drastically that the BJP would beat both the CPI(M) and the Congress. O Rajagopal, who was then the tallest leader of the BJP, tasted an election victory after years of being in the fray. Overnight, Nemom became the pride of the BJP in Kerala. The national leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, called Nemom its gateway to Kerala, which had historically only voted for the Left Democratic Front (LDF) led by CPI(M) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) led by Congress.
Nemom, however, offers no guarantee to any political party. In 1982 when Karunakaran won two seats and let go of Nemom for Mala, the voters of Thiruvananthapuram chose the CPI(M) in the by-election that followed.
Nemom constituency is vast, especially after the 2008 delimitation, and is spread across 23 wards of the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation.
When Rajagopal won in 2016, there were allegations of a ‘political understanding’ between the Congress and the BJP - since the LDF had maintained its vote share but Congress had fallen terribly short. Accusations were levelled against the party for fielding a weak candidate - V Surendran Pillai of Janata Dal (United), an ally.
Read: 2021 Elections: Why Nemom will see a strong three-way race unlike other Kerala constituencies
The UDF brought in K Muraleedharan, a popular Congress leader and son of K Karunakaran in the 2021 polls. He garnered around 36,000 votes, but ended up in third place as V Sivankutty of the CPI(M) won against BJP’s Kummanam Rajasekharan. After his win, Sivankutty, stated that the promise made by LDF Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was kept, and the account of the BJP was closed in Kerala.
A tight contest
Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s campaign, while attacking the LDF and the Congress, stays largely clear of religious polarisation, though he keeps attacking the Left over the Sabarimala gold theft case. He carefully avoids controversial topics like anti-conversion laws, instead emphasising on ‘Vikasita Keralam’ (Developed Kerala). But Rajeev Chandrasekhar keeps hinting at the LDF’s and UDF’s alleged friendship with Jamaat-e-Islami. He also makes sure he refers to the state by its new rooted spelling, Keralam, while wooing Christian and Muslim votes in Kerala, brushing away the anti-minority image of the BJP.
The UDF campaign subtly ensures visibility of its candidate’s faith. Sabarinadhan posts visuals of temple visits along with his campaign videos, writing alongside about his belief in certain deities and festivals. Sabarinadhan entered electoral politics after the demise of his father, Congress leader G Karthikeyan, and won his first election from Aruvikkara in 2015. He lost the 2021 election but has remained active politically. In 2025, he contested and won the local body polls from Kowdiar.
Sabarinadhan has said that he considers it a recognition that the party chose him for Nemom, but it remains to be seen whether he can perform better than K Muraleedharan.
Sivankutty, the LDF candidate, is the veteran of the lot, having twice become the MLA of Nemom. A former Mayor, Sivankutty was the minister for General Education and Labour for the past five years.
For this year's campaign, he is fighting Rajeev Chandrasekhar by posting 'claims versus facts', discrediting BJP’s poll promises of development. His campaign motto is 'Nemom Nanma Thudarum' - meaning Nemom's goodness will continue.
Nemom may be just one of the 140 constituencies of Kerala facing election on April 9, but even one small suburb can clearly turn things around, for better or worse.