Who is the BJP's candidate for Thrissur, Suresh Gopi, as it gets ready to attack its stronghold in Kerala?

"I am taking Thrissur," "I want Thrissur," and "Thrissur njan edukkuva." This is the catchphrase that actor-politician Suresh Gopi, the BJP's candidate from Thrissur, used to launch his campaign. And it seems to have been successful. Preliminary indications indicate that Gopi, who has been nominated by the BJP for the Lok Sabha again in spite of his defeat in the previous election, has a chance to achieve a historic win in Thrissur.

On the website of the Election Commission of India, Malayalam film actor Gopi is leading Communist Party of India candidate B S Sunil Kumar by 73,573 votes as of 1 pm. K Muraleedharan, a former Congress MP, is also a candidate.

This victory could be significant for the BJP because it would be the first time the party has won a Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, a state that the party has yet to win. The BJP has been concentrating on Thrissur as one of its target seats in upcoming election.

This victory is important for 65-year-old Gopi as well, since not only did he lose the parliamentary seat to T. N. Prathapan of the Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha, but he also ran an unsuccessful campaign from this location in the 2021 Kerala assembly elections.

Months after Gopi's BJP membership, the party nominated him to the Rajya Sabha in October 2016. Since then, Gopi has been a prominent campaigner for the party in Kerala, drawing sizable audiences with his glamorous persona. Thus, even though he placed third in the 2019 polls behind the Left Democratic Front and the United Democratic Front (headed by Congress), he made waves in that election.