India, Dec. 28 -- A BJP councillor, VV Rajesh, was sworn in as the mayor of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, on Friday. This achievement is significant for both the BJP and Kerala politics. First, the symbolism in having a BJP mayor in the state capital is not to be missed, especially when assembly elections are due in less than six months. Second, the BJP has never before won a corporation in Kerala, which is why Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it was "a watershed moment" for the party. However, the BJP should be worried that its vote share in the local bodies drastically fell from 19.26% in 2020 to 14.76% this time.

An interesting aspect of the BJP's record in Kerala is that the groundwork it has done in the past few years by raising loca...