Congress leaders in Thrissur ‘unaware of BJP gains

K. Muraleedharan, former Congress MP who was pushed to the third spot in the Lok Sabha polls from the Thrissur constituency, has said that the party’s local leaders were unaware of the advances made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) there.

Opening an event organized by the Vellayil block committee of the party in memory of late Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in Kozhikode on Tuesday, he said the leaders were confident of his victory even though the BJP had added 56,000 new voters to the electoral rolls.

Suresh Gopi, actor-turned-BJP leader, got elected from there.

“I was told to travel by a vehicle with no steering, nuts, or bolts. I got trapped in Thrissur. Somehow, I managed to escape from there,” he said, referring to his defeat. Mr. Muraleedharan, who won from Vadakara in 2019, said people like Kozhikode district Congress committee president K. Praveenkumar were among those who asked him to shift to Thrissur this time. Mr. Praveenkumar was on the dais when Mr. Muraleedharan said this.

The Congress leader also said the local body polls scheduled for 2025 were the Congress’s “last bus.” He claimed that the party had no hope in Thrissur and should try to get the maximum number of seats from Kozhikode.