Hoping to ride on a possible mobilisation of Ezhava votes in the State, the Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), is engaged in hard bargaining with the BJP for more seats to contest in the upcoming civic polls. However, its poor electoral performance in the past election has undercut its bargaining capacity. BDJS leaders feel that the party shall be given its due credit for the impressive performance of many BJP candidates in the 2024 general election in the State, especially in constituencies such as Alappuzha, which has a sizable number of voters belonging to the Ezhava community. Though BJP leader Shobha Surendran was relegated to the third position in Alappuzha, she bagged 2,99,648, marking a significant jump in the vote share of the party. A large number of community votes were polled in favour of Ms. Surendran, they argue. The party, they claim, was successful in swaying away the community votes in favour of the BJP candidates in many constituencies, which otherwise would have been polled in favour of its opponents. “The leadership meetings recently …