Photo credit: india tv news
BJP finally opened its account in Kerala with actor-politician Suresh Gopi winning the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat. By earning a lead of 75,079 votes , Suresh defeated his LDF opposite candidate V S Sunil Kumar. Suresh Gopi earned a total of 4,09,239 votes and V S Sunil earned 3,34,160 votes. Thus with a majority of votes, Suresh Gopi became the first elected BJP MP from Kerala.
Congress also bought in former MP of the Vadakara constituency K Muraleedharan. But unfortunately, he wasn’t able to put down V S Sunil from the race. The decision to bring K Muraleedharan to the Thrissur constituency was a last minute decision due to Padmaja’s( K Muraleedharan’s sister who shifted to BJP from congress ) shift in alliance for this election.
Reacting to his historic win,Suresh Gopi responded with gratitude to his BJP party workers stating “I also credit my party workers who worked in more than a thousand booths in the constituency. A lot of mothers and sisters from other districts and states also worked for me. Many of them came from Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. Their effort made a positive impact,”
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In the state of Kerala as a whole , UDF seals its majority with 18 seats whereas LDF and BJP earned one seat each in the southern state. According to the manorama news , the voter turnout hit a downfall in Kerala from 77.67 % in 2014 to 71.29% in 2024. Sahashi Tharoor from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency and Rahul Gandhi from the Wayanad constituency have confirmed their seats from kerala.The state ruling party LDF could only manage one seat in the Lok sabha election with K Radhakrishnan taking over the Alathur constituency from the Congress candidate Ramya Haridas.
Who is Suresh Gopi ?
Suresh Gopi is a popular actor turned politician from kerala. He has also won the National Film award for the Best Actor for the movie Kaliyattam in 1998.This admired actor from Kerala is well known for his police roles in different movies, wherein he plays the role of the hero who delivers mass punch dialogues and speaks out against the wrong.
Photo credit : IMDB
During his initial college days ,Suresh was an active member of (SFI) student federation of India where he developed interest to work for the social betterment of the society. In 2016, Suresh became an MP In Rajya Sabha as he was nominated by the president under the article 80 of the constitution.
He also joined the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) in the same year. In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he contested the election from the Thrissur constituency where he lost the election securing the third place. But this loss didn’t make Suresh Gopi lose his hopes to return for the Lok Sabha next election in the same constituency. In 2021 , he also contested in the Kerala state elections where he also lost to the CPI candidate.
How did Suresh Gopi open the BJP account in Kerala ?
Despite Suresh Gopi’s residence in the Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala, he has notably established a formidable presence in Thrissur through his active participation in election campaigns and other initiatives.During one of his election campaign speeches , he quoted a line which was very similar to a dialogue from one his mass-entertainer movies.The line stated “I need this Thrissur, you should give me Thrissur, I’m taking Thrissur”. This indicates the sheer confidence he had in himself for his victory after the repeated losses from the same constituency.
Photo credit : kerala kaumudi
But how did Suresh Gopi finally be able to bloom the lotus in Kerala ? According to The Week article , the majority of voters turnout in Thrissur were women. Suresh was announced as the candidate for the constituency by Narendra Modi in a women’s conference. Thus making an impression on the female community of the constituency. Thrissur also has a majority of christian voters.To bolster his election campaign towards the christian community of Thisuur he bought in Mariyakutty (who was one of the elderly ladies who protested against the delay of the welfare pension in Kerala) to an election campaign event. His celebrity image also definitely helped him for his glorious victory.
