BJP candidate from Thrissur constituency Suresh Gopi celebrates as he leads in the Lok Sabha elections on the day of counting of votes, in Thiruvananthapuram (PTI)
The BJP created history in Kerala on Tuesday opening its account for the first time with its candidate and Malayalam film actor Suresh Gopi registering a stupendous victory in Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency.
Kerala voters, finally, removed the "no entry" board hung up for the BJP with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's overdrive helping the party increase its vote share by more than two per cent. The BJP victory by a margin of 74686 votes in Thrissur which was the sitting seat of UDF, is quite significant considering that all the seven assembly segments in the constituency are with the ruling LDF.
The BJP had drawn a meticulous plan to wrest the Thrissur seat from the Congress. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Thrissur at least thrice, held public meetings, roadshows and also extended a personal touch by attending Suresh Gopi's daughter’s marriage at the famous Guruvayur temple a couple in January this year.
Besides, the BJP also got a shot in the arm on the eve of the polls when K Padmaja, the daughter of former chief minister, and Congress stalwart late K Karunakaran joined the BJP. The Congress tried to do some damage control by replacing the sitting MP of Thrissur T N Prathapan with Karunakaran’s son K Muraleedharan who represented Vadakara in Lok Sabha.
But the move could not bring the desired result for the Congress with Muraleedharan ending up third. Political observers say the Christian outreach by BJP might have succeeded in gaining traction among a section of the community.
The police highhandedness during Thrissur Pooram which is the biggest festival of the people there, also adversely affected the prospects of both LDF and UDF.
The BJP candidate Suresh Gopi increased his vote share from 2.90 lakh in 2019 to over 4 lakh this time around. While CPI’s V S Sunil Kumar bagged 3.34 lakh votes the Congress vote share came down from 4.15 lakh to 3.24 lakh.
Kerala voters, finally, removed the "no entry" board hung up for the BJP with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's overdrive helping the party increase its vote share by more than two per cent. The BJP victory by a margin of 74686 votes in Thrissur which was the sitting seat of UDF, is quite significant considering that all the seven assembly segments in the constituency are with the ruling LDF.
The BJP had drawn a meticulous plan to wrest the Thrissur seat from the Congress. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Thrissur at least thrice, held public meetings, roadshows and also extended a personal touch by attending Suresh Gopi's daughter’s marriage at the famous Guruvayur temple a couple in January this year.
Besides, the BJP also got a shot in the arm on the eve of the polls when K Padmaja, the daughter of former chief minister, and Congress stalwart late K Karunakaran joined the BJP. The Congress tried to do some damage control by replacing the sitting MP of Thrissur T N Prathapan with Karunakaran’s son K Muraleedharan who represented Vadakara in Lok Sabha.
But the move could not bring the desired result for the Congress with Muraleedharan ending up third. Political observers say the Christian outreach by BJP might have succeeded in gaining traction among a section of the community.
The police highhandedness during Thrissur Pooram which is the biggest festival of the people there, also adversely affected the prospects of both LDF and UDF.
The BJP candidate Suresh Gopi increased his vote share from 2.90 lakh in 2019 to over 4 lakh this time around. While CPI’s V S Sunil Kumar bagged 3.34 lakh votes the Congress vote share came down from 4.15 lakh to 3.24 lakh.
( Source : Deccan Chronicle )
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