Chennai: Actor-politician Suresh Gopi, who became the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) first Lok Sabha MP from Kerala, was given a ministerial berth in the third term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government Sunday.
His victory in the Thrissur constituency, despite the BJP’s national setbacks, has fuelled the party’s hopes in Kerala, where it has been desperately trying to make inroads.
Gopi, who previously contested the seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 assembly elections without success, triumphed with a significant margin of over 70,000 votes.
His win is particularly noteworthy as he defeated two prominent politicians: Left Democratic Front (LDF)’s former minister V.S. Sunil Kumar and Congress’s K. Muraleedharan. Gopi secured 4,12,338 votes, while Sunil Kumar received 3,37,652 votes, and Muraleedharan garnered 3,28,124 votes.
The BJP’s focus on Thrissur was evident as Modi visited the constituency twice in January. Modi’s presence at Gopi’s daughter’s wedding at Guruvayur temple further highlighted the strategic importance of this seat.
Moreover, the party, which contested 16 seats this time, saw its vote share rise to 16.68 percent, up from 13 percent in 2019 when it contested in 15 seats, according to Election Commission (EC) data.
Apart from Thrissur’s success, the BJP also made significant gains in Thiruvananthapuram, where Rajeev Chandrasekhar contested closely against Shashi Tharoor, who has been representing the constituency since 2009 and won the seat by a thin margin of 16,077 votes.
The party also increased its vote share in almost all constituencies in the state and secured the most votes in 11 assembly segments this election.
With a ministerial berth for Gopi, the party will boost its efforts in the state, where it is aiming big for the local body elections slated next year and the assembly elections scheduled in 2026.
According to C.R. Neelakandan, a political analyst based in Kerala, multiple factors, including Gopi’s image, favoured the BJP candidate in the constituency.
“When an issue like Karuvannur came up, the United Democratic Front (UDF) was silent. But Suresh Gopi raised the matter, even more than the BJP. He became the face of the Opposition. Beyond a politician, he also has an image of being an actor and philanthropist” Neelakandan told ThePrint.
Several Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders, including former Alathur MP P.K. Biju, were questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the alleged money-laundering case at the Karuvannur Service Co-operative Bank. Gopi had continuously raised the issue in Thrissur, and in October 2023, even led a foot march in the district protesting the alleged corruption.
Meanwhile, for people in Kerala, Gopi is not just an actor-politician.
Apart from giving the Malayalam silver screen hits in the 1990s and early 2000s, he wore multiple hats, from that of a popular television host to a humanitarian. Some of 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 Bharatchandran IPS (2005) to name a few.
Support of Christian voters
According to political analyst Nelakandan, the shift in ‘upper caste’ Christian voters favoured Gopi and the BJP in Thrissur. The division of the anti-BJP votes between the LDF and the UDF, which fielded strong candidates, also resulted in Gopi’s victory, he added.
Notably, two days before his daughter’s wedding, Gopi and his family had visited Lourdes Church in Thrissur and offered a gold crown to the effigy of the Virgin Mary.
Thrissur’s then MP, T.N. Prathapan, was one of the first to react to Gopi’s move and reportedly said the BJP couldn’t wash away its “sin” in Manipur — referring to the inter-ethnic violence in the BJP-ruled state — by donating a gold crown.
On 25 April 2019, a day before Kerala voted for the Lok Sabha elections, the actor met multiple religious leaders, including the bishop of the Pala diocese of the Syro Malabar church, Kanjirappaly bishop Mar Jose Pulickal and 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 24.27 per cent Christians and 17.07 percent Muslims.
Among Hindus, the influential Nair (general category) community — to which Gopi belongs — and the Ezhavas (OBC) reportedly constitute the major populations, while Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities make up nearly 11 percent of the population.
Political journey
Gopi’s political career began as an activist of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) during his college days in Kollam, his hometown.
Years later, his political engagements spanned across major parties, as he campaigned for both the CPI(M)-led LDF and the Congress-led UDF in the 2006 assembly elections.
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.
Post-2014 general elections, Gopi expressed admiration for Modi. The BJP’s state leadership soon revealed that they were in contact with the actor.
In 2015, the actor-politician announced his interest in joining the BJP and reportedly said, “It would be decided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
His entry into the Rajya Sabha as an eminent citizen in April 2016 was followed by his official BJP membership in October of the same year.
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 Thrissur, the BJP nominated Gopi, who secured 28.2 percent of the votes — an increase of 17 percentage points from the previous Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP candidate, 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.
In the 2021 Kerala assembly elections, Gopi contested from Thrissur but finished third with 40,457 votes, trailing behind LDF’s P. Balachandran (44,263 votes) and Congress’s Padmaja Venugopal (43,317 votes).
Philanthropy and controversies
In 2020, a segment from the TV show Ningalkum Aakam Kodeeswaran, which is the Malayalam version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, became widely shared on social media.
In the video, the contestant recounted her experience of dowry abuse by her husband and in-laws. Moved by her story, host Gopi expressed his empathy for parents with daughters and shared his own family’s decision against demanding dowry.
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.
Gopi has been vocal about various social issues and has received public acclaim for his philanthropic efforts. He was also known for lending helping hands to many people in need even before he became a politician.
However, the actor-politician has also been in the limelight for a few controversies.
During the 2019 election campaign, he was reprimanded for allegedly using the Sabarimala issue to sway voters by appealing to religious sentiments.
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)
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