A war of words has erupted between the CPI(M) and Congress in Kerala over Suresh Gopi's groundbreaking win in Thrissur, with both accusing each other of helping the BJP register its first poll victory in the state. The Congress’ vote share in Thrissur dropped from 39.83% in 2019 to 30.08% this time, while the BJP's increased from 29.19% to 37.8%. The CPI(M)-led LDF vote share remained more or less intact, 30.95% now compared to 30.85% in 2019. Adding to the Congress's embarrassment, its losing Thrissur candidate K Muraleedharan, who won the Vadakara Lok Sabha seat in 2019, also blamed his party for his defeat. “The Congress machinery in the constituency (Thrissur) was in a shambles. Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned for Gopi and Chief Minister (Pinarayi) Vijayan campaigned for the LDF. No one came for me," he said, adding that he may have won had he contested from Vadakara again. Muraleedharan had already begun campaigning in Vadakara when he was abruptly informed that he was being fielded from Thrissur, following his sister Padmaja Venugopal’s switch to the BJP. The two are children of the late Congress Kerala veteran, K Karuankaran. A section of the Youth Congress leaders have also raised questions over Muraleedharan's loss, demanding the resignation of district president Jose Vallore and senior leader T N Prathapan, who had won in 2019 from Thrissur. Reaching out to Muraleedharan, Kerala Congress chief K Sudhakaran said the party will review what went wrong in Thrissur. “The outcome was totally unexpected. Muraleedharan is an asset for the party and is not a leader who should stay away from public life. We will ensure he is active in the Congress at any cost,” he said. While the Congress infighting is out in the open, the LDF too has reasons to worry about the Thrissur result. Its votes in the Lok Sabha seat fell as compared to what it had polled in the 2021 Assembly elections across the constituency's seven segments. While the CPI(M)-led LDF had won all the seven seats in 2021, getting 4.85 lakh votes altogether, it could get only 3.37 lakh votes this time. The fall in UDF votes was not as sharp, from 3.52 lakh votes across the seven Assembly segments in 2019 to 3.28 lakh this time. As Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan called for a serious examination of the Thrissur result, his colleague and CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan said, “The BJP has got the Congress votes in Thrissur. The Congress lost 86,000 votes while Gopi’s victory margin was 74,000. The LDF increased its votes by 6,000. Our assessment was very clear that the BJP will not win. But the Congress ensured the BJP’s victory." From the Congress side, Leader of the Opposition V D Satheesan on Wednesday blamed Vijayan for the BJP’s Thrissur win. “The UDF had raised concerns over erosion of votes in CPI(M) areas before the elections. The CPI(M)-BJP deal was out in the open. He (Vijayan) made the deal as he wanted to stop Central agencies from probing his party leaders,” he said.
