BJP opens account in Kerala as Suresh Gopi wins from Thrissur

In October 2016, Gopi officially joined BJP and in 2019, he contested in the 2019 Indian General Election in Kerala as a candidate of the BJP from Thrissur where he lost to Prathanapan.

Actor turned politician Suresh Gopi contesting from the Bharatiya Janata Party, won from the Thrissur constituency in the Lok Sabha 2024 elections. Gopi received a total of 4,12,338 votes and won with a margin of 74,686 votes against ADV VS Sunilkumar of the Communist Party of India (CPI), data from the Election Commission of India (ECI) showed.

With Gopi's victory, the BJP opened its account in Kerala where the party never won a Lok Sabha seat in the past. The southern state has been a stronghold of communist parties but in 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, T.N. Prathanapan of the Indian National Congress won the Thrissur seat.

Alongside Gopi, K Muraleedharan were contesting from the Indian National Congress and VS Suni Kumar is contesting from the Communist Party of India.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, T.N. Prathanapan won from the Indian National Congress in the constituency.

Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology of India, addressed the media after the counting on June 4 and said that Suresh Gopi has worked hard in Thrissur and Kerala. “We are happy and excited on BJP’s expansion in Kerala and South. Gopi worked very hard in Thrissur and Kerala,” said Chandrashekhar.

In October 2016, Gopi officially joined BJP and in 2019, he contested in the 2019 Indian General Election in Kerala as a candidate of the BJP from Thrissur where he lost to Prathanapani.

In his election affidavit for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Gopi’s showed his profession as a Cinema Artist and his total declared assets are Rs 18.6 crore which includes Rs 8.9 crore in movable assets and Rs 9.7 crore in immovable assets. His total declared income is Rs 4.6 crore of which Rs 4.4 crore is self income and he has total liabilities of Rs 1.3 crore. He has four criminal cases registered against him.

The 2024 Lok Sabha elections are crucial for both the Indian National Congress (INC) and the NDA in Kerala. With 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in contention, the state saw polling on April 26, achieving a voter turnout of 70.35%, down from 77.84% in 2019.

In the past elections, Kerala was a Congress stronghold wherein the Indian National Congress (INC) secured a majority of the seats in the state, while the NDA failed to win a single one. In fact, in the previous Lok Sabha elections held in 2019, the direct contest was between the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF). The NDA votes could play a crucial role in determining whether the UDF can replicate its 2019 performance.