Kerala Assembly Elections 2026 | No Muslim candidates among BJP list

Even as the BJP in Kerala recently initiated a Muslim outreach programme and the state has 27 percent Muslim population as per the 2011 census, the list of candidates of BJP as well as other NDA coalition partners seems to be having no one from the community.

During the earlier elections, the BJP used to field one or two Muslim candidates in Malappuram district, which has the highest Muslim population.

BJP Minority Morcha state president Sumit George told DH that it so happened that no persons from the Muslim community were there among BJP candidates. It was not any deliberate move. He also added that the BJP was not showing any sorts of discrimination as many central schemes were being rolled out in Malappuram district which has the highest Muslim population.

BJP vice president Abdul Salam, who spearheaded the Muslim outreach programme in last November, as well as party national vice-president A P Abdullah Kutty said that candidate selection was based on winnability factors and not caste or community.

Salam, who was the lone BJP candidate from Muslim community in Kerala in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, claimed that the party's Muslim outreach programme received good response from Muslim households and religious heads.

Grand Mufti of India and All India Sunni Jamiyyathul Ulama general secretary Kanthapuram A P Abubaker Musaliyar had even met Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month to discuss various issues affecting the community.

'Deal allegation to woo Muslim votes'

Meanwhile, BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Monday that the Congress and the CPM were alleging each other of deal with BJP with the aim of wooing the Muslim vote banks. Congress won in Telangana with this trick, he said.

The Congress however stepped up the 'deal' allegation further.

Opposition leader V D Satheesan, who earlier said that the CPM-BJP deal was very well evident in at least ten seats including Palakkad, added on Monday that the deal was evident in Kasargod, Manjeshwar, Ranni and Konni seats also. BJP won Thrissur seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha election as part of the deal.

The Enforcement directorate probe into the Karuvannur cooperative bank scam involving senior CPM leaders subsequently lost its steam, he added.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan countered that the BJP won the Nemom seat in 2016 as part of a deal with the Congress to ensure the victory of a Congress leader. "It is the Congress that has past experience of entering into a deal with the BJP. CPM will never compromise with communal forces for a few votes," he said.