“A Union Minister for Thrissur, Modi’s guarantee’’. The BJP's prospects in this constituency are being built, day by day, on this promise of actor-turned politician Suresh Gopi. There is another, more personal slogan that the former Rajya Sabha MP has dusted off from his unsuccessful 2019 campaign from the seat: “Thrissur njan edukkuva (I am taking Thrissur), Enikku venom Thrissur (I want Thrissur)”. Gopi finished third in 2019, behind the Congress and CPI candidates, but got an impressive 2.93 lakh votes. Now, Thrissur is one of the constituencies in Kerala the BJP is betting on to win, on the strength of Gopi's popularity, the Hindu votes, and its own efforts in the state towards wooing the Christian community, which forms around 21% of the electorate. The BJP has never won a Lok Sabha seat in Kerala. Facing Gopi, 65, are Congress veteran K Muraleedharan, the sitting MP from Vadakara, and former CPI minister V S Sunil Kumar. On April 19 evening at Mattathur, a CPI(M)-dominated village, hundreds are waiting for Gopi. Pointing to the crowd, a local BJP leader says: “Lotus has already bloomed. The LDF and UDF have realized that their political base is shaken. Otherwise, why is this crowd waiting for him?” As Gopi’s vehicle arrives, the crowd scrambles to capture him on their mobile phones. Once the commotion has settled down, Gopi says: “I want you to give me a chance. I promise that I will dedicate my life to the people here.” Ashwin, who identifies himself as a Left sympathizer, is not sure whom he will vote for this time. “We are not against the Left, but the performance of its state government. It has hiked fees for various services and certificates at all offices. You cannot even construct a small house. People are struggling,” he says, adding that it is difficult to say who will benefit from this anger, the Congress or the BJP. But fellow villager Jose K says it is not as simple. “Here people are divided on CPI(M) and Congress lines. our political stands have developed over years. If the BJP comes one day seeking votes, who will go with them? Among the Christains, only a very few support the BJP. On the ground, the BJP has no links with Christians,’’ he says. The BJP has been at work to woo the Christians, particularly the Catholics, for some time, realising that the Hindu vote alone – fragmented as it is between parties – cannot help it make a breakthrough in Kerala. Together, the Christians and Muslims make up half the population of the state. As part of this, the BJP has been playing into Christian fears regarding growing Islamisation, and what the party calls “love jihad”. A sign of the community's support was the decision by some Church platforms recently to screen The Kerala Story, criticised for blowing up the number of women from the state indoctrinated by the Islamic State. When the CPI(M) and Congress criticised the move, the BJP rushed in support of the Christian organizations and diocese. But even if the BJP still has some distance to go in Thrissur, Gopi, who hails from Thiruvananthapuram but is now a voter in Thrissur, has already come a long way, with people appreciative of the fact that even after his 2019 defeat, he didn't desert the constituency. Residents talk of Gopi using his MPLADS funds as a Rajya Sabha member from 2016 to 2021 for developmental projects here, and spending out of his own pocket for philanthropic work. In fact, after the 2019 elections, when Gopi got 28.2% of the votes in Thrissur – more than double the BJP's 11.15% share in 2014 – the actor-turned-politician repeated his impressive performance in the 2021 Assembly polls. He finished third in the Thrissur Assembly seat, but got 31.3% of the votes, up from 19.46% for the BJP candidate in 2016. Earlier this year, Gopi donated a golden crown to Lourdes Metropolitan Cathedral Church here to mark the wedding of his daughter. What is believed to have upset the BJP and Gopi's calculations, though, is the last-minute entry of Muraleedharan in the race. The Congress dropped its sitting MP T N Prathapan, who had begun campaigning, to field Muraleedharan, in a bid to defuse the fallout from his sister Padmaja Venugopal joining the BJP. Thrissur was the hometown of Muraleedharan and Padmaja's father, the late Congress veteran K Karunakaran. While Prathapan is an OBC, the Congress hopes that the upper caste Hindu vote that was seen as moving to the BJP will now be divided and go to Muraleedharan as well. The Congress is also banking on the support of Muslims, who form around 15.4% of the population in Thrissur. Even the CPI candidate may not be a walkover. As a former LDF minister, Sunil Kumar is a popular face in the constituency and praised for being accessible by all sections of society. However, the LDF fears an erosion of votes following allegations of fund embezzlement at the CPI(M)-controlled Karuvannur Cooperative Bank. Several senior party leaders are under the Enforcement Directorate (ED) scanner in connection with the case. Last year, when the ED began a probe into the scam, the CPI(M) had alleged that it was meant to help Gopi in the seat. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has raised the scam during his Kerala poll meetings, hoping to ring a bell with several depositors left in penury due to the embezzlement. The Congress, meanwhile, is using the case to substantiate its claims of a “nexus” between the CPI(M) and the BJP government at the Centre, asking why the ED had “gone soft” in the case. Days to go for voting day, the disruption of the annual Thrissur Pooram due to police crowd control measures on April 19 might impact some voters. After the much-anticipated firework display could not be held at the cultural extravaganza, Gopi tried to ensure the same in the early hours of April 20. The BJP hopes to portray the issue as another sign of the CPI(M) and Congress's slighting of Hindus. With the BJP highlighting Gopi's involvement in the conduct of Pooram, the Congress alleged that the state police created a situation for the intervention of the BJP in the conduct of the festival. On Sunday, to contain the political fallout, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan directed the state police chief to transfer Thrissur Police Commissioner Ankit Ashok and Assistant Commissioner K Sudarsan with the permission of the Election Commission. "The Director General of Police has been directed to carry out a probe into the incidents and submit a report," the CM said.
