On June 9, 2024, soon after his defeat in the general elections from the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency, a post appeared on entrepreneur-turned-politician Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s page on X, announcing his exit from electoral politics after an 18-year stint of public service. Within a few minutes, the post vanished, replaced by a clarification that Mr. Chandrasekhar meant the end of his 18-year-long stint as an MP and three years as a Minister of State. He claimed his team’s “new young intern” had caused the confusion.
Less than a year later, he is back in the thick of it all, with the central leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appointing him president of the party’s Kerala unit. The election defeat also probably contributed to his elevation to the post, for he gave a close fight to Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, whose margin of victory tumbled from 99,989 to 16,077 votes.
Mr. Chandrasekhar’s appointment comes at a crucial juncture in the BJP’s political trajectory in Kerala. Until recently, the State remained largely impervious to the Sangh Parivar’s electoral gambits. In 2024, Kerala yielded a Lok Sabha seat to the BJP in Thrissur for the first time in the State’s electoral history, raising questions about whether the win portended the wane of the UDF-LDF revolving door politics. Ahead of the local body polls later this year and the Assembly elections in 2026, the BJP is seeking to build on this success and to broaden its base, especially among the aspirational younger crowd whom Mr. Chandrasekhar had gone all out to woo in his Lok Sabha campaign.
But he is also an unusual choice for the post, as he has limited personal connection with the local populace. For a change, the party has not chosen someone who has worked the way up through grassroots politics; instead, it has selected someone who entered the party’s upper echelons based on his record as a businessman. The party may leverage this image to appeal to the ideologically flexible and apolitical crowd, a constituency successfully cultivated by Mr. Tharoor.
“People in the State have no trust in politics after 70 years of false promises on both fronts. We need to change Kerala from a place with ‘Nokkukooli’ (gawking wages) to one with investments and jobs. There should be an NDA government in the State to bring about this change. This is the task that has been given to me. I will return only after fulfilling this mission,” Mr. Chandrasekhar said soon after taking charge.
Beginnings
Born as the son of an Indian Air Force officer, Rajeev Chandrasekhar spent a good part of his early years in Karnataka. In the late 1980s, after completing master’s in computer engineering in the U.S., he joined Intel for a three-year stint, which would come in handy when he returned to the country and became the executive director of BPL Group, owned by his father-in-law T.P.G. Nambiar. In 1994, he became one of the first tech entrepreneurs in the country to launch BPL mobiles, tapping into the emerging field of mobile telephony.
However, a decade later, Nambiar approached the Company Law Board, accusing Mr. Chandrasekhar of stealthily increasing his stake in the company without making a proportional investment, a charge he denied. For nearly a year, the feud prevented Mr. Chandrasekhar from selling his stake as planned. But, by 2005, he sold his stake and founded Jupiter Capital, an investment and financial services firm that now manages assets across several sectors.
When Mr. Chandrasekhar officially entered politics in 2006, Karnataka was ruled by the Janata Dal (Secular)-BJP combine — the first time the saffron party was in power in a South Indian State. He threw his hat in the ring to contest for a Rajya Sabha seat from the State as an Independent, with the blessing of both the parties in power.
The gist
In the late 1980s, Rajeev Chandrasekhar joined Intel for a three-year stint, which would come in handy when he became the executive director of BPL Group, owned by his father-in-law T.P.G. Nambiar
But, by 2005, Chandrasekhar sold his stake in BPL and founded Jupiter Capital, an investment and financial services firm that now manages assets across several sectors
Around the time of his political entry, he made his foray into media, too, with Jupiter Capital acquiring a 51% stake in Asianet Communications. In 2017, he co-founded Republic TV with anchor Arnab Goswami
A controversy regarding the influence of big money in politics and seat allocation surrounded his entry. Writer U.R. Ananthamurthy also waged an unsuccessful symbolic contest, as a protest against the entry of businessmen into politics and against non-Kannadigas representing Kannadigas. Mr. Chandrasekhar would represent Karnataka in the Rajya Sabha for two more terms, eventually becoming the Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and Jal Shakti in his final term.
Around the time of his political entry, he made his foray into media, too, with Jupiter Capital acquiring a 51% stake in Asianet Communications. He later handed over the entertainment wing of the group to Rupert Murdoch’s Star Network, while retaining the news channel firmly under his control. In 2008, the Asianet News Network also launched Asianet Suvarna News in Kannada. In 2017, Mr. Chandrasekhar co-founded Republic TV with anchor Arnab Goswami.
The varied coverage of these channels reflects Mr. Chandrasekhar’s business acumen in shaping each one according to the political realities of the regions and populations it caters to. Although he claims not to get involved in Asianet editorial matters, a recent controversy over an anchor analysing the increasing popularity of Mahakumbh among Malayalis, linking it to the BJP’s growth, is instructive. In a public post critical of the programme, he wrote: “I have instructed them to ensure no careless statements or mockery should be made about a sacred event attended by lakhs of devotees.”
Political winds
Mr. Chandrasekhar sensed the political winds changing in favour of Narendra Modi quite early on. He had begun championing him for the top post before 2014, a period during which he also had his eyes on Thiruvananthapuram. Just before the 2024 elections, when he finally landed a Lok Sabha seat, he shifted base from Karnataka to Kerala.
In 2023, the Kerala Police registered cases against him on charges of making communally instigative social media posts in connection with the blasts at a prayer convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses at Kalamassery in Kochi. His comments linking the explosions to the CPI(M)’s Palestine solidarity led to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan calling him “extremely poisonous”. After he filed the election affidavit, the LDF accused him of withholding details of his major holding company, Jupiter Capital, while only declaring the subsidiary companies. Mr. Chandrasekhar responded that his disclosures were compliant with the law.
At the ceremony where he took over the BJP’s factional feud-ridden State unit, with too many leaders vying for the top post, they all united in welcoming him. Kerala has always remained elusive for the BJP. The party does not have even a single MLA in the current Assembly. The challenge before Mr. Chandrasekhar is to break the trend when the party is preparing for the coming local body and Assembly elections.
Published – March 30, 2025 01:04 am IST
