Chennai: While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faced setbacks nationally in the Lok Sabha elections, the party won its first Lok Sabha seat in Kerala with the victory of actor-politician Suresh Gopi in Thrissur. Gopi, who had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from Thrissur in 2019, won the seat with a margin of over 70,000 votes this time. He had also contested the assembly elections from Thrissur in 2021 but finished third.
The actor has triumphed in his third attempt — a major breakthrough for his party, too. Gopi’s victory also assumes significance as he contested against two tall leaders, former minister V.S. Sunilkumar of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and K. Muraleedharan of the Congress. While Gopi got 4,12,338 votes, Sunilkumar secured second place with 3,37,652 and Muraleedharan received 3,28,124 votes.
The seat was the centre of the BJP’s push in the state. In the run-up to the polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited twice in January. One of his visits was to attend Gopi’s daughter’s wedding at Guruvayur temple in Thrissur.
According to C.R. Neelakandan, a political analyst based in Kerala, multiple factors worked in Gopi’s favour, from his personal image to his interventions in local issues such as the money-laundering case involving the Karuvannur Service Co-Operative Bank. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has questioned several leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in connection with the case, including former Alathur MP P.K. Biju.
Gopi had continuously raised the issue in Thrissur and led a foot march in the district protesting against the alleged corruption in October 2023.
“When an issue like Karuvannur came up, the UDF (United Democratic Front, the Congress-led alliance in the state) was silent. But Suresh Gopi raised the issue, more than the BJP, too. He became the face of the opposition. He also has an image beyond that of a politician, being an actor and philanthropist.” Neelakandan said.
He added that the division of anti-BJP votes between the UDF and the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), both of which fielded strong candidates, also played a role in Gopi’s victory.
A look at the BJP’s vote share suggests that the Thrissur result may be more Gopi’s personal victory than that of the party he represents. He won with 37.8 percent of the vote, up from 28.2 percent in 2019. In the state overall, the BJP, which secured a vote share of 13 percent in 2019, only saw a small surge to 16.68 percent in 2024. It contested in 16 of Kerala’s 20 seats this time and 15 in 2019.
For people in Kerala, Gopi is not just an actor-politician. Apart from giving the Malayalam silver screen back-to-back hits in the 1990s and early 2000s, he has worn multiple hats, from that of a popular TV host to a humanitarian. His notable characters include Kannan Perumalayan in Jayaraj’s Kaliyattam, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello, which bagged him the national and Kerala state film awards in 1998. After portraying versatile roles in his early career, it was action thrillers and cop movies that made him a Mollywood star, with hits such as Ekalavyan (1993), Commissioner (1994), Highway (1995), Lelam (1997), and Bharathchandran IPS (2005) to name a few.
Also read: Mullaperiyar row flares up again as Kerala seeks to proceed with dam study, TN warns of legal action
Support of Christian voters
According to Neelakandan, there was also a shift among ‘upper-caste’ Christian voters to favour Gopi in Thrissur.
The BJP has been working assiduously to court Christians in Kerala. Two days before his daughter’s wedding, Gopi and his family visited Our Lady of Lourdes Metropolitan Cathedral in Thrissur and offered a golden crown to the effigy of the Virgin Mary.
This did invite some backlash at the time. Congress leader T.N. Prathapan, Thrissur’s then MP, sought to link the issue to the inter-ethnic conflict in Manipur — which has a large Christian population — saying the BJP couldn’t wash away its “sin” by donating a golden crown.
However, Gopi persisted with his outreach. On 25 April, a day before Kerala voted in the Lok Sabha elections, the actor met with multiple religious leaders, including Mar Joseph Kallarangatt, the bishop of the Pala diocese of the Syro-Malabar Church, and Kanjirappally bishop Mar Jose Pulickal.
He also met with G. Sukumaran Nair, general secretary of the Nair Service Society, at the NSS headquarters in Changanassery.
The Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency consists of seven assembly segments — Guruvayur, Manalur, Ollur, Thrissur, Nattika, Irinjalakuda, and Puthukkad.
According to the 2011 census, Thrissur district has a 58.42 percent Hindu population followed by Christians at 24.27 per cent and Muslims at 17.07 percent.
Among Hindus, the influential Nair (General Category) community — to which Gopi belongs — and the Ezhavas (OBC) constitute the major populations, while Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities make up nearly 11 per cent of the population.
Also Read: Modi to visit Kerala today, 2nd time in a fortnight. What makes BJP so optimistic about Kerala
Political journey
Gopi began his involvement in politics as a student activist of the SFI in his hometown, Kollam. Many years later, he was seen campaigning for both the state’s major political coalitions — the CPI (M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) — in the 2006 assembly polls.
Campaigning for the UDF’s M.P. Gangadharan in Ponnani then, the actor had reportedly said, “I am apolitical. I am doing this only because the candidate is my uncle.”
He was also seen at a campaign rally for senior LDF leader V.S. Achuthanandan in Palakkad’s Malampuzha later, according to media reports.
After the 2014 general elections, Gopi heaped praises on Modi. The BJP’s state leadership soon revealed that they were in contact with the actor.
In 2015, Gopi announced his interest in joining the BJP and reportedly said, “It would be decided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
In April 2016, the actor was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the President in the category of eminent citizens. Later, in October, he officially joined the BJP, which would go on to field him as a candidate in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The 2019 elections were held in the backdrop of the Sabarimala protests in the state, and the Congress gained from the nomination of Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad.
In the Thrissur constituency, the BJP nominated Gopi, who secured 28.2 percent of the votes — an increase of 17 percentage points from the previous Lok Sabha elections.
Gopi, who also campaigned on the Sabarimala issue, came third after the UDF’s T.N. Prathapan and the LDF’s Rajaji Mathew Thomas, who secured 39.8 percent and 30.9 percent of the votes respectively, according to Election Commission data.
Gopi tried his luck again in the 2021 Kerala assembly elections from Thrissur, but he finished third with 40,457 votes, behind LDF’s P. Balachandran (44,263 votes) and Congress’s Padmaja Venugopal (43,317 votes).
Also read: Amid The Kerala Story row, church under Ernakulam-Angamaly diocese screens documentary on Manipur
Gopi’s popularity and controversies
The year was 2020. A snippet from the popular TV programme Ningalkum Aakam Kodeeswaran (regional version of ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’) went viral on social media.
In the video, the contestant spoke about how her husband and in-laws had abused her for dowry. After hearing the story, the host, Gopi said, “My heart aches thinking about parents who have daughters.”
Gopi added that he belonged to a family of four sons who decided not to ask for dowry. “What will men do if women decide to not marry and be independent? Yes, I am angry. I do have two daughters. Listen to this before you approach them for marriage. Or else they will live alone,” he added.
This was one of the many instances where Gopi expressed his views on social issues and earned praise from the public. He was also known for lending helping hands to many people in need even before he became a politician.
In 2018, Gopi had given Rs 3 lakh to Viji, wife of Sanal Kumar, who was allegedly murdered by a police officer, according to media reports.
However, the actor-politician has also been in the limelight for a few controversies.
In the run-up to the 2019 polls, Gopi was also issued a notice by the then Thrissur collector and district election officer T.V. Anupama for allegedly violating the Model Code of Conduct by invoking the Sabarimala controversy to appeal to religious sentiments for votes.
At a campaign meeting in the district, Gopi had reportedly said, “If my Ayyan (the deity Ayyappan)… our Ayyan… if that Ayyan is my emotion, the brutal government will get a befitting reply this election. The Ayyappan devotees across India will turn it into a wave.”
In April 2022, a video of the BJP leader sitting in his car and handing over kaineetam (money given as part of the Vishu festival) to women went viral. The women were seen touching his feet after receiving the money.
He also held various Vishu programmes the same year in Thrissur and gave Rs 1,000 to the priest of Thrissur Vadakkunnathan Temple. Later, the Cochin Devaswom Board reportedly issued a statement barring temple priests from accepting money.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)