Actor-turned politician Suresh Gopi has literally rewrote political history not only for Thrissur but also of the State. The Bharatiya Janata Party finally opens an account in Kerala in the Lok Sabha elections with a resounding victory of the former Rajya Sabha member with a margin of 74,686 votes.
Like his popular campaign slogan, ‘He just took Thrissur’. The angry man of Malayalam cinema literally stormed the bastions of both the Left Democratic Front and the United Democratic Front.
Responding to questions of mediapersons after the result, an emotional Suresh Gopi said, “I did not take Thrissur. They gave it to me wholeheartedly. Like the crown I offered to Lourdes Church, I will keep Thrissur on my head. I bow before the people of Thrissur. I will act as the MP of the State”.
Mr. Gopi won with a thumping majority against the LDF’s popular leader and former Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar. The UDF suffered a major setback as K. Muraleedharan came third. It should be noted that in 2019, UDF’s T.N. Prathapan won with a majority of 93,633 votes in Thrissur securing 39.84% of votes.
Right from the counting of postal votes, Mr. Gopi improved his position. He did not trail even in a single stage.
However, the political history of the Thrissur constituency has been full of anti-climaxes. Thrissur has history of defeating sitting MPs or parties in the past six Lok Sabha elections. It has history of defeating Congress leader K. Karunakaran, K. Muraleedharan, and Padmaja Venugopal in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. From 1952 to 2019, the LDF had won here 10 times and the UDF seven.
Personal charisma
The NDA was not in a powerful position in Thrissur until it fielded Mr. Gopi in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Though he finished third, he won 2,93,822 votes (28.19%), which was 17% more than BJP’s K.P Sreeshan’s tally in 2014. Since then, Mr. Gopi made it a point to make his presence felt in the constituency whenever he visited Thrissur.
In 2021, Mr. Gopi contested from the Thrissur Assembly constituency. That time too he won an all-time high votes for the BJP in an Assembly elections. He secured 31.3% votes, which was 11.84% more than in 2016.
But there is a view that Mr. Gopi ‘s victory cannot be seen as the BJP’s added influence among voters. Many consider this actually as support for Mr. Gopi as an individual, especially from women voters. Through his campaign of attending family get-togethers across the constituency, he managed to gather support of women voters.
Throughout the campaign, the BJP was projecting Mr. Gopi as a future union minister if he won. His closeness to the BJP top brass, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minster Amit Shah, gave him an edge.
The Prime Minister himself had launched his election campaign in Thrissur. The Prime Minister visited twice later, once for attending Mr. Gopi’s daughter’s wedding, showing the importance the party gave to Thrissur.
Published - June 04, 2024 07:43 pm IST
