Ahead of Kerala elections, Amit Shah to arrive in Thiruvananthapuram on January 10

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will arrive in Kerala on Sunday, January 10, 2026, to chalk out the road map of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s poll strategy for the state’s Assembly elections.

Former BJP State President K. Surendran said: Hindu He said Mr Shah will chair the party’s core committee meeting at the BJP’s State Headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram.

“The meeting is likely to be about rallying the party’s grassroots at the booth level to streamline the NDA’s election machinery rather than other details,” he said. The meeting will also form the basis of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Kerala, Mr. Surendran said.

Mr Shah’s visit assumes significance in the context of post-poll assessments in the party’s state unit, including debates on whether the NDA has managed to expand its base in Kerala.

Citing poll data from the State Election Commission, a BJP insider stated that the NDA won 19.26% of the total votes cast in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. However, in local opinion polls, the vote rate dropped to 14.76 percent.

He said the Kerala leadership of the BJP has noted internally that the socio-political context of the Lok Sabha polls is sharply different from the local elections. However, he finds the decrease in the voting rate with concern.

“The local body poll results have raised the question of whether the NDA’s demographic calculations of further penetration of the Christian and Azhava votes, especially in Central Kerala, have gone off the mark. However, another senior leader said the local body poll results are not necessarily a weather vane indicating the direction in which the political winds are blowing.”

Another BJP leader said that the Assembly elections will be tough and there will be a close fight in many constituencies. He noted that Congress’s vote share in local body elections decreased by 6.35% compared to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. However, he said the erosion in UDF votes did not benefit the NDA as expected.

According to some accounts, the BJP is focusing on 35 Assembly constituencies and aims to increase its vote share in the Assembly polls to an optimal 25% to negotiate with the LDF and UDF from a strong position post-elections. Mr Shah’s and later Mr Modi’s visit to Thiruvananthapuram also showed that the capital was emerging as the center of gravity of the BJP’s Assembly poll planning.

At least three party heavyweights, including Chief Minister Rajiv Chandrasekhar, former Union Minister V. Muraleedharan and Mr. Surendran, are likely to contest from Thiruvananthapuram.

Notably, Mr. Shah had interacted with the party’s respective State leaders in Assam and West Bengal, where Assembly elections are due this year. He will also visit Tamil Nadu, which is facing an Assembly election year, to hold similar strategy meetings with state leaders of the BJP.