Thrissur : Kerala welcomes BJP as former Rajya Sabha MP and actor turned politician, Suresh Gopi, became the first MP of the saffron brigade from the state. Suresh Gopi, who contested on BJP ticket, gained an early lead over rival candidates and emerged victorious in Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency. He defeated popular CPI leader and former minister VS Sunil Kumar, who was the LDF candidate, and former CM K Karunakaran's son and Vadakara MP K Muraleedharan, who was the Congress’ last-minute pick for this seat.
Thrissur has a history of defeating its sitting MPs. For the last 6 parliament elections, the electorate of Thrissur repeated the same behaviour. This time Thrisuur recorded a dip of over 5% in the polling percentage.
Incumbent Congress MP T N Prathapan, the only sitting parliamentarian denied a ticket to contest, was appointed as the working president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee. After dropping Prathapan from Thrissur, the party nominated K Muraleedharan, the sitting MP from Vadakara, to contest from Thrissur following a last-minute twist. With Muraleedharan's candidacy in Thrissur, stage was set in Central Kerala for a fierce battle, as the BJP candidate Suresh Gopi — known for his proximity to Prime Minister Narendra Modi — hoped of securing the seat and ending the party's electoral dry spell in the southern state. The Congress's strategic move to field Muraleedharan from Thrissur, once a stronghold of his late father Congress stalwart K Karunakaran, came just a day after his sister and party leader Padmaja Venugopal defected to the BJP in March this year.
Suresh Gopi's candidature was confirmed months before election and he was active in Thrissur constituency with welfare activities. BJP leaders including PM Narendra Modi unofficially announced his candidature from Thrissur and attended political gatherings in the district. The BJP organisational system worked effectively in Thrissur well ahead of the announcement of the general election. Booth level deletion and insertion of voters was carried out carefully by local leaders.
CPI fielded one of the fine candidates and their campaign was at par with BJP and Congress.They highlighted the Manipur violence and need for ousting NDA from power. BJP highlighted the Karuvannur co-operative bank scams and the glitches during Thrissur Pooram in their campaigns. Both Congress and BJP hope the anti incumbency against the state government will benefit them at Thrissur. BJP hopes they can establish a lead in Manalur, Irinjalakuda and Thrissur assembly constituencies. They also expect a close second in Nattika and Pudukad assembly segments.
2024 contest: The total number of registered voters in this constituency in 2024 polls was 1483055, and the seat saw a voting turnout of 72.90% (1081125 total count of votes), according to the Election Commission’s data. The seat went to polls in phase 2 on April 26, 2024.
In the 2019 LS Polls, Congress candidate T. N. Prathapan won from Thrissur, getting 415,089 votes, comprising 39.84% of the total number of votes polled. He defeated Rajaji Mathew Thomas by a margin of 93,633 votes. BJP’s Suresh Gopi was the second runner up with 293,822 votes (28.20%). In 2014, C. N. Jayadevan had won from this seat, polling 389,209 votes (42.28%) and defeating K. P. Dhanapalan of Congress by a margin of 38,227 votes.
