By Shankar Raj*
Thiruvananthapuram: For the first time in the history of Kerala, the Lotus was able to bloom with a huge and thumping margin of 74,686 votes in Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency when actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi bagged the seat defeating his Communist Party of India -Marxist (CPM) rival Sunil Kumar and pushing ‘giant killer’ K Muraleedharan of the Congress to the third place.
On close examination, the CPM was able to retain its vote share in Thrissur, but there was massive cross-voting by traditional Congress supporters.
While the lotus bloomed for the first time, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) wilted and failed miserably bagging just one seat – very similar to its 2019 performance.
While Suresh Gopi’s win has given a foothold for the BJP in Kerala, the party lost in Thiruvananthapuram where Shashi Tharoor of the Congress defeated Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar in a tough fight. Union Minister V Muraleedharan too lost in Attingal.
Congress’s debacle in the constituency is largely due to the utter disarray in the party’s organizational structure. The party’s expectations about Christian votes also seem to have gone haywire. The wide campaigns, often in hushed tones, on ‘Love Jihad’ and on the alleged pampering of the Muslim community by the LDF and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), must have also wooed a section of the Christian voters to the BJP. The split in Muslim votes may have also facilitated Gopi’s win.
The victory is also a mandate for the BJP central leadership and particularly for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had come thrice to Thrissur to lend his support to Gopi. A lesson that the victory in Thrissur gives to the BJP in Kerala is that it is possible to cobble up a majority even in a constituency with a large share of minority votes, provided it is able to field a candidate who will transcend the ‘Hindutva’ image of the party.
Also read: Verdict 2024: Suresh Gopi becomes the first BJP MP from Kerala
The UDF won 18 seats in Kerala, mainly due to two factors: massive anger of the voters against the misrule by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. His over-emphasis on the Uniform Civil Code, amendments to the Citizenship Act, and supporting Hamas to woo Muslims seems to have backfired with many Hindu and Christian votes going to the UDF; secondly, the UDF got the massive backing of Muslims, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and the banned PDF which had declared their support for the UDF well before elections were declared.
There is likely to be an internal struggle and churning in the CPM with top leaders like former finance minister Thomas Issac and former health minister KK Shylaja questioning the style of functioning of Pinarayi Vijayan. But since the CM has loaded his cabinet with his close supporters, he is likely to escape scrutiny even as the party starts hunting for scapegoats.
There will also be a struggle in the Congress as KPCC president K Sudhakaran has won from Kannur and will have to resign from his post triggering a struggle between Opposition leader VD Satheesan and CWC member Ramesh Chennithala.
Already, K Muraleedharan has expressed displeasure and anger at the way some leaders conspired to shift him from his sitting seat of Vadagara to Thrissur. He told newsmen that he would not contest any elections in the future.
Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi registered a huge win from the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat by over 3.6 lakh votes. However, since he won from Rai Bareli, he is likely to give up Wayanad.
His close confidant and party general secretary K C Venugopal won from Alappuzha with over 60,000 votes.
*Shankar Raj is a former editor of The New Indian Express, Karnataka and Kerala, and writes regularly on current affairs.
