In a historic first in Kerala, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is leading in the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat. The saffron party was also leading in the Thiruvanthapuram Lok Sabha constituency that is held by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor for a while. However, Tharoor, who was trailing by 16000 plus votes, is currently leading by over 3400 votes.
BJP’s Suresh Gopi is on course for a victory with the Thrissur seat, as he is leading with over 70000 votes over the Congress and Communist Party of India(Marxist), or CP(M).
According to the Election Commission of India, Suresh Gopi is currently first for the Thrissur seat with over 3.96 lakh votes, while CP(M)’s Sunil Kumar stands second with 3.23 lakh votes. In third place is Congress candidate Muraleedharan with 3.15 lakh votes. The development is a shocker, given that the BJP has never won a single seat in Kerala’s history.
The other surprise in Kerala was when Shashi Tharoor was trailing, as many observers had expected him to sail through given that the Congress is riding high on anti-incumbency against the ruling CP(M) in Kerala. BJP’s Rajeev Chandrashekar also came close to defeating Tharoor in the 2019 polls as well.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Suresh Gopi’s choice by the BJP was a surprise given his background as a former leader of the CP(M)-affiliated Students’ Federation of India (SFI). According to various reports, he has also campaigned for partis earlier calling himself an “apolitical” person. He was also the BJP’s candidate for the Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency in 2019 and in the assembly seat with the same name in the 2021 Kerala elections.
Moreover, the BJP and its parent organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have also been persistently trying to woo certain communities amongst Hindus in Kerala.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP for 15 % of the vote share in Kerala when the Congress-led UDF swept the elections by winning 19 of the 20 Lok Parliamentary seats. This time, the Congress and IUML are set to win 13 and two seats each, while the BJP and CP(M) are on course to win 2 and 1 seat respectively.
