2 min readThiruvanananthapuramMar 16, 2026 03:16 PM IST
C Mukundan, a legislator from the ruling CPI in Kerala, joined the BJP on Monday after his party did not give him a ticket to contest the upcoming assembly elections. Mukundan currently represents the Nattika assembly constituency in Thrissur district and is likely to contest from there as a BJP candidate.
A Dalit face in the CPI, an ally of the LDF in Kerala, Mukundan was denied a party ticket for a second term. Instead, the CPI fielded Geetha Gopi from the Nattika seat.
Subsequently, Mukundan alleged the CPI had converted Nattika into a “payment seat”. Despite being a first-time legislator, Mukundan claimed, he was denied a seat for a second term because he could not mobilise money for the party.
In response to the allegations, the CPI expelled him from the party. Before moving to the BJP, Mukundan reportedly knocked on the Congress’s doors, but the party did not favour his candidature as a UDF-backed independent in the seat.
After deliberations with BJP leaders, Mukundan on Monday took membership at the party’s district office in Thrissur. In the 2021 elections, Mukundan had defeated Congress candidate Sunil Laloor.
Early this month, a former two-term CPI legislator, K Ajith, had joined the BJP, saying that the LDF has failed in Kerala to address the woes of the Dalit community. He had represented the Vaikam (SC reservation) seat for two terms from 2006.
