Thrissur: Rajya Sabha MP Suresh Gopi received a cheerful welcome from the BJP and BDJS workers here on Thursday as he arrived to file nomination as an NDA candidate. BJP state president P. S. Sreedharan Pillai and district president A. Nagesh accompanied him. He said he would not give any promises but focus on development.
The workers welcomed the film star-politician by beating Nasik dhol, and a few hundreds of them took out a procession on motorbikes with the actor on an open jeep to the collectorate. He offered floral tributes at the Amar Jawan memorial near the collectorate before submitting the nomination.
“I was planning to take part in the campaigning for at least five of the NDA candidates in Kerala including Kummanam Rajasekharan and K. Surendran when the national leadership put tremendous pressure on me to contest from Thrissur. I had first refused, but I see this as divine will now. I will do whatever possible for Thrissur if elected,” he said.
He also said that as there are just two weeks left before polls, the campaign would have to be threefold faster and effective.
“All efforts will be made for the proper and safe conduct of Thrissur Pooram with fireworks and elephant upholding the tradition of the festival,” he said.
Cop creates ruckus:
D Ashok Kumar, an assistant commandant of AR Camp in Thrissur who was on duty at the collectorate, created ruckus inside the collector’s chamber by pushing around and even shouldering and elbowing journalists and photographers while Suresh Gopi was submitting his nomination papers.
A huge number of employees at the collectorate came rushing towards the collector’s chamber to get a glimpse of the star actor filing the nomination, and no proper arrangements were made by neither the cops nor the district administration to control the crowd at collectorate during the time of filing nominations.
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