The Kerala Story: Congress-led UDF sweeps state but BJP scripts history

The Congress-led United Democratic Front in Kerala may have retained 18 out of 20 Lok Sabha seats but it was the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that scripted history by winning its first ever Lok Sabha seat in the state.

Ruling CPI(M), which hoped to cash in on the BJP scare created among minorities, could win only a seat. Meanwhile, the Left could not wrest back many of its traditional strongholds which Congress had conquered in the 2019 elections.

In a major upset, BJP candidate and former Rajya Sabha member Suresh Gopi won Thrissur with a margin of 74,000 votes, beating his two heavyweight rivals — senior Congress leader K. Muraleedharan and CPI’s V.S. Sunil Kumar. This is the first time that the BJP has secured a seat in the state, which has traditionally seen a two-way fight between the UDF and the LDF.

For the CPI (M), the only saving grace came from Alathur, which its senior leader and former state minister K. Radhakrishnan wrested from sitting Congress MP Ramya Haridas. CPI(M)’s lone sitting MP A.M. Ariff too lost Alappuzha to Congress general secretary K.C.Venugopal.

Within the UDF, Congress allies Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), regional Christian party Kerala Congress and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) also managed to win seats. While the IUML fought, and won, two seats while both Kerala Congress and the RSP scored a seat each.

In contrast, CPI (M)’s allies CPI and Kerala Congress (M) drew a blank.

One of the most closely watched contests in the state was in Thiruvananthapuram, where, although he lost his maiden election, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar reduced sitting MP Shashi Tharoor’s victory margin to 15,000 votes from 99,000 in 2019.

In Attingal, another Union minister, V. Muraleedharan, lost the race