BJP’s surprise victory in Thrissur triggers blame game with local Youth Congress leaders accusing seniors

Following the BJP's unexpected win in Thrissur, local Youth Congress leaders have begun blaming party elders—including the district president and a former MP—for allowing their competitors in Kerala to enter the state.

Thrissur district Congress president Jose Valloor and former MP T.N. Prathapan were held accountable by State Youth Congress leaders Mohammed Hashim, Abimon Thomas, Mohammed Sarooq, and Kavya Ranjith for the BJP's unexpected win.

As the party rounded up to assess the circumstances that resulted in the BJP stealing the esteemed seat from them, the Youth Congress leaders informed reporters, "The district leadership is responsible for the people's dissatisfaction with the Congress."

However, M.V. Govindan, the state secretary of the CPM, expressed doubts about the change in Congress votes in Thrissur. "The Congress lost 86,000 votes when the LDF received 16,000 odd votes, and Suresh Gopi won with 74,000 odd votes. You now have to calculate," he continued.

Gopi of the BJP defeated the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in Thrissur by 74,686 votes. The UDF won 19 of the 20 seats in the state. With 86,965 fewer votes than in 2019, the party that has occupied the seat for a considerable amount of time dropped to third place.

After finishing third in the 2019 elections, Gopi shocked both the LDF and the UDF by winning the central Kerala constituency with 4,12,338 votes, or around 1,18,516 more than he had cast in the previous election.

The accusations inside the Congress surfaced when anti-Prathapan and anti-Valloor banners started popping up across the area, threatening to ban the former MP from ever running in a local body election.

After his sister Padmaja Venugopal joined the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections, the Congress nominated K. Muraleedharan to succeed the reticent Prathapan, who had won by a wide majority in 2019.

The decision to field Muraleedharan from Thrissur at the last minute was ascribed to Padmaja's switch to the BJP, a counterproductive move by the Congress that caused the party to suffer a significant defeat, even though he was the incumbent MP from Vadakara and planned to run for re-election from the seat.

Following Tuesday's loss, an emotional Muraleedharan declared he would never run for office again. He went so far as to say that the party's decision to move him to Thrissur was a sacrifice.

Muraleedharan stated that no senior politician supported Gopi, despite the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had personally endorsed him and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for LDF's V.S. Sunil Kumar.

Kerala's long-standing reputation as one of the biggest barriers preventing the BJP from entering the state was lost with Gopi's win. Only neighboring Tamil Nadu kept it intact by denying the BJP even one seat.

State CPI secretary Binoy Viswam attempted to find out where the Congress votes went although acknowledging that even the LDF must look into the causes for its dismal performance. "What became to the Thrissur UDF votes? Like us, the Congress need to look into this setback, according to Viswam.