After Narrow Defeats, BJP's K Surendran Returns To Kerala's Manjeshwaram

Former Kerala BJP chief K Surendran is one of the heavyweights in the 2026 Assembly elections in the southern state. He is contesting from the Manjeshwaram seat in Kasaragod district and is pitted against sitting IUML MLA AKM Ashraf and CPI(M) leader KR Jayananda.

Born on March 10, 1970, into a family of farmers at Ulliyeri in Kozhikode, he earned his Bachelor of Science from Zamorin's Guruvayurappan College, Calicut University in 1990.

Surendran began his journey in politics with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and later turned into a full-time worker of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. Later, he was named the Wayanad district president, state general secretary and state president of the BJP's youth wing. 

Surendran gained popularity among people and party workers after heading the Sabarimala agitation that saw him imprisoned for 22 days.

His Journey To The Top

Surendran was appointed as the president of the BJP's Kerala unit after the top post fell vacant following his predecessor Sreedharan Pillai's appointment as Mizoram Governor in October 2019.

Being a resident of Kozhikode district, Surendran represented the BJP for the first time in the Lok Sabha elections from Kasargod in 2009. At the time, he was defeated by CPM leader P Karunakaran and secured little over 1.25 lakh votes.

He contested the Assembly elections in 2011 from Manjeswaram and finished second with 43,989 votes, while Indian Union of Muslim League (IUML) leader PB Abdul Razak won by 5,828 votes.

Surendran was fielded by the BJP again from the Kasaragod Lok Sabha seat in 2014, but he lost to P Karunakaran.

The 2016 Assembly elections were the closest contest, with Surendran losing Manjeswaram by a wafer-thin margin of 89 votes against IUML's Abdul Razak. Back then, Surendran had even dragged the IUML to court, accusing the party of casting bogus votes to get a victory. 

In 2019, Surendran contested from the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha seat and lost to Congress' Anto Antony by over 84,000 votes. The same year, the BJP fielded him from the Konni bypoll against CPI(M) leader KU Jenish Kumar. He lost this time by over 14,000 votes.

During the 2021 Assembly elections in Kerala, Surendran was defeated by IUML's AKM Ashraf by just 745 votes. He contested from the Konni seat, where CPI(M) leader KU Jenish Kumar defeated him by over 29,500 votes.