Who Is Rajeev Chandrasekhar, BJP Kerala Chief Contesting From Nemom

BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar has filed his nomination for the Kerala Assembly elections 2026 from the Nemom constituency.  

The seat holds much importance for the BJP. The party called it the “Gujarat of Kerala,” as it delivered the BJP its first, and so far only, Assembly victory in the state in 2016. 

Chandrasekhar's opponent is V Sivankutty of the CPM.

Kerala is set to vote in a single phase on April 9. Results will be out on May 4. 

Who Is Rajeev Chandrasekhar? 

Rajeev Chandrasekhar was born on May 31, 1964, in Ahmedabad to Air Commodore MK Chandrasekhar and Valli Chandrasekhar. He studied electrical engineering at Manipal Institute of Technology and completed a Master's degree in Computer Science from the Illinois Institute of Technology, US. He also completed an Advanced Management Programme at Harvard University. 

He then worked at Intel in the US as a design engineer and was part of teams working on the 80486 and Pentium processors. 

Rajeev Chandrasekhar returned to India and married Anju Chandrasekhar, daughter of BPL Group founder TPG Nambiar, in 1991. He worked in the family business before founding BPL Mobile in 1994. 

In 2005, he sold his 64% stake in BPL Communications to the Essar Group for $1.1 billion and launched Jupiter Capital with $100 million, which now manages over $800 million across technology, media, hospitality, and entertainment. 

In 2006, Chandrasekhar was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka as an independent. He served as the youngest president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in 2008. He was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2012 for a second term. 

He served as an Independent from 2006 to 2018, with support from the Janata Dal (Secular) and BJP, before formally joining the PM Narendra Modi-led government in 2018. 

The same year, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha as a member of the BJP from Karnataka. Two years later, Chandrasekhar was appointed national spokesperson of the BJP. 

In 2021, he became Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology and Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. 

In March 2025, he was appointed president of the BJP's Kerala unit.