THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Mr Olancherry Rajagopal, 86, has created history by becoming the first BJP MLA in the state Assembly. His victory is also a fitting answer to the UDF and LDF leaders, including A. K. Antony, Oommen Chandy, V.S. Achuthanadan and Pinarayi Vijayan, who had asserted that lotus will not bloom in Kerala.
Mr Rajagopal maintained his lead in the Nemom constituency right from the beginning of counting on Thursday till the end, though there are allegations that the Congress helped him win, since UDF candidate V. Surendran Pillai was pushed to the third place.
It was a hard-fought battle for Mr Rajagopal against CPM veteran V. Sivankutty whom he defeated by 8, 671 votes. UDF candidate V Surendran Pillai came a poor third, collecting 13,860 votes as against 20, 248 polled by Mr Charupara Ravi (SJD) in 2011. There are posers whether this erosion in the UDF vote base has been deliberate as part of local adjustment.
Mr Rajagopal had tasted defeat eight times earlier— Lok Sabha elections from Manjeri in 1989, from Thiruvananthapuram in 1991, 1999, 2004 and 2014, Assembly elections from Nemom in 2011, Neyyatinkara Assembly by-election in 2012 and Aruvikkara by-election in 2015. In 2011, Mr Rajagopal had come second behind Mr Sivankutty with a vote share of 37.4 percent in Nemom.
Even his political opponents vouch that ‘Rajettan’ is the right man in the wrong party. There were speculations earlier that he would be given a gubernatorial post and sent to the north.
Half way through his campaigning in Nemom, there were reports that his supporters had flocked to Vattiyoorkavu, where BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan contested. But that did not prevent Mr Rajagopal from emerging victorious. It was in 1960s that Mr Rajagopal started his political innings with Bharatiya Jan Sangh and became the state president and a member of the BJP national executive council.
