As the Left Democratic Front and United Democratic Front are trying to safeguard their traditional turf from BJP advances, Prime Minister Narendra Modi signalled Thrissur as a top priority for his party when he carried out a roadshow here a few days ago. The BJP candidate is Padmaja Venugopal, daughter of Congress stalwart the late K Karunakaran, a four-term chief minister.
The fact that Sureh Gopi, when he won the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat for BJP in 2024, had a more than 10,000-vote lead in this assembly segment is fuelling the party’s desire to wrest it from CPI this time. But UDF’s victory in the Thrissur Municipal Corporation last December by bagging 33 of the 56 divisions, knocking BJP down to the third slot behind the Left, has boosted the confidence of Congress to push hard for regaining Thrissur, which used to be the late Karunakaran’s home-turf.
What is adding a twist in the plot is that the Congress candidate, who lost in 2021 to a CPI nominee by a slender margin of 946 votes, was the same Padmaja who has now padded up for BJP. She is pitted against CPI’s newcomer candidate Alankode Leelakrishnan, better known as a poet and orator, and Congress’ Rajan J Pallan, a former mayor of Thrissur.
While this is a kind of make-or-break election for Padmaja as she had lost past contests in both assembly and Lok Sabha polls as a Congress candidate, many think BJP’s fate here will also be linked to whether Suresh Gopi’s performance as an MP has lived up to the high-hopes he had created when he won the seat.
“BJP getting pushed back to third position in the Thrissur Municipal Corporation in less than two years after the party’s LS poll victory shows it was just a one-time hype. Moreover, why should the local BJP cadre be enthused about the Congress defector Padmaja,” asked Vijayan, a vendor in the Swaraj Rounds here.
“Padmaja lost last time only because a section of the local Congress functionaries sabotaged her election. This time, as a BJP candidate, her party is fully backing her more so after Modiji made this a prestigious fight for us,” said Radhakrishnan, a local resident. “Moreover, as Karunakaran’s daughter, she has silent support among a section of old Congress sympathisers here.” On CPI’s Leelakrishnan, people appeared divided over whether he has the required electoral appeal and political skills to hold on in a high-voltage ground war. Given Congress candidate’s long political association with the town, his tenure as a mayor and his social base, many here feel that the main fight this time is between Pallan and Padmaja.
