TN Prathapan fears Gopi may win in Thrissur

Thiruvananthapuram: UDF candidate T. N. Prathapan is scared that superstar-turned politician and NDA candidate Suresh Gopi may pull off a cinematic-style victory in the epic battle in the Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency. He expre-ssed his fears at the KPCC office-bearers’ meeting here on Tues-day taking the Congress leaders by surprise.

Prathapan’s anxiety is based on the fact that a large number of traditional UDF voters had voted for Suresh Gopi on the Sabarimala issue.

The UDF would have romped home by a margin of over a lakh votes if BDJS president Tush-ar Vellapally was the ca-ndidate in Thrissur, said Prathapan. But Tushar was shifted to Wayanad when Congress president Rahul Gandhi deci-ded to contest from there.

“Suresh Gopi's candidature adversely affected my prospects. I unde-rstand that there was a division of Hindu votes and the traditional Hin-du votes of the UDF we-nt in favour of the NDA candidate,” Prathapan told the meeting.

A senior Congress MLA told DC that Prathapan should not have made such a confession now which wo-uld give more mileage to the BJP. But UDF convener Benny Behanan maintained that Prathapan was speaking out of humility.

The Congress had fielded candidates in 16 seats and four were given to the UDF allies. While candidates in 15 seats were sure of a win, Prathapan was not so confident.

But KPCC president Mullapally Ramachan-dran, Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala and AICC general secretary Oommen Chandy said the UDF would win all the 20 seats.

The political affairs committee decided to revamp the party at the earliest after the poll results are announced. The PAC meeting also decided to intensify the protest against the fake voting and postal vote fiasco and pursue them legally.

A 10-member sub-committee under senior Congress MLA K. C. Joseph was appointed to probe the slashing of UDF voters’ names from the voters’ list.