Actor Suresh Gopi opens BJP’s account in Kerala, wins Thrissur constituency by 74,686 votes
BJP's Suresh Gopi
Suresh Gopi, a Malayalam actor-turned-politician, has made history by becoming the first-ever Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha member from the south Indian state of Kerala. The BJP candidate maintained a comfortable lead of more than 70,000 votes against his rival V S Sunil Kumar from the Communist Party of India (CPI) and ultimately won by a margin of 74,686 votes.
Gopi's win in Thrissur comes after failures
Gopi’s win comes after multiple failures over the years since he first joined the BJP in 2016. He first sought to win Thrissur for BJP during the last general elections in 2019 but failed to do so. After two years, he also failed to win in the 2021 assembly elections. However, the saffron party chose him again this time around.
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The seat that the Malayalamactor is poised to win was among BJP’s focus areas this election.
Gopi, since he became an actor as a child in 1965, has been a part of around 250 films, mainly in Malayalam.
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"Iam in totally ecstatic mood. What was very impossible became gloriously possible...it was not a 62-day campaign process, it was an emotional carriage for the past 7 years...I work for Kerala as a whole,"Gopi told news agency ANI, after early trends showed that he was leading.
About elections in Kerala
The voting in the south Indian state of Kerala took place in the second phase of the Lok Sabha Electionson April 26. It is also one of the few states where the Congress remains strong.
However, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has sought to change that this election and they may have done that with Gopi’s potential win.
Also Read |Kerala Lok Sabha Election Results 2024: INDIA bloc, led by Congress in lead
Exit polls had suggested that Union Minister and BJP candidate from Thiruvananthapuram Rajeev Chandrasekhar would defeat his rival veteran Congress member Shashi Tharoor, and it seemed like that for some time as the saffron party’s candidate had gained a lead of 13,000.
However, the Congress candidate clawed his way back up in the polls, as the day progressed and won with a comfortable lead.
(With inputs from agencies)