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The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is desperate to build its presence in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
The party has little support in the state. It won just a single seat in the 140-member Kerala assembly in the 2016 assembly election. This was the first time it entered the assembly. In the 2019 elections to the Indian parliament, the BJP, which swept the elections in the rest of India, performed dismally in Kerala. None of its candidates was elected from the state, despite its aggressive attempt to mobilize Hindu votes on the Sabarimala Temple issue. However, its vote share more than doubled.