Thrissur, which has been described as the cultural capital of Kerala, will witness the most spirited triangular battle between the CPI, the Congress and the BJP in the April 26 Lok Sabha election.

The ruling Left front has fielded CPI’s VS Sunil Kumar; the BJP has named the popular actor Suresh Gopi while the Congress has decided on K Muraleedharan, who is the sitting member from the Vatakara Lok Sabha constituency

The Congress faced a setback following the resignation of former chief minister K Karunakaran’s daughter, Padmaja Venugopal, from the party. She joined the BJP.

There was a last-minute shuffle in the Congress candidate list which pushed K Muraleedharan to contest in Thrissur, instead of his seat Vatakara. The fielding of Muraleedharan in Thrissur, replacing T N Prathapan, the sitting MP, was a surprise move by the Congress in the wake of Muraleedharan’s sister Padmaja Venugopal’s entry into the BJP camp, resigning from Congress. The change was brought forth at a time when Prathapan had completed one round of his ‘Journey of love against hatred’ in the entire constituency. Thousands of posters had been printed and party activists had begun wall writings for him across the constituency.

Mr Prathapan had even launched his campaign on Thursday after paying floral tributes at the K Karunakaran Smrithi Mandapam.

This decision is widely interpreted in political circles as a move to counter BJP candidate Suresh Gopi’s influence. Muraleedharan’s past electoral successes, notably his victory against CPM’s P Jayarajan in Vadakara, underscores his potential to navigate tough political landscapes.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Congress candidate T N Prathapan won with a majority of 93,633 votes defeating CPI leader Rajaji Mathew Thomas. Prathapan polled 4,15,089 votes while Rajaji Mathew got 3,21,456 votes. BJP’s Suresh Gopi got 2,93,822 votes.

Traditionally a Congress stronghold, Thrissur has seen surprising upsets, notably defeating Congress stalwart K Karunakaran. In 1996 Parliamentary elections, K Karunakaran had lost from Thrissur constituency. K Muraleedharan himself lost the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat in the 1998 election. Similarly, when Muraleedharan contested from the neighbouring Wadakkanchery Assembly constituency in 2004 by-election, when he was the electricity minister in the UDF cabinet, victory remained elusive.

The legacy of being the heir of Karunakaran is Muraleedharan’s USP. The statistics don’t match with the stature of the man. Out of 12 electoral battles Muraleedharan had fought over the years since 1989, he had won only half of it. Still, after his re-entry into the Congress in 2011, whenever the state congress unit runs into difficult situations ahead of an election,the name of K Muraleedharan comes up as the crisis manager to bail out the party. Now, he is poised to neutralise the threats of Suresh Gopi of BJP and VS Sunil Kumar of CPI at Thrissur Loksabha constituency.

The Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate, VS Suni Kumar of CPI, a former state agriculture minister is highly popular. The LDF expects that his popularity would turn the tables in its favour this time. However, the involvement of some left leaders in the Karuvannur cooperative bank scam may have an adverse effect on the CPI candidate here. The left will have a difficult time in defending its leaders who are under the shadow of suspicion in the nearly Rs 350-crore financial fraud.

BJP ‘s actor-turned politician Suresh Gopi has been actively engaged in the constituency ever since his defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and in the 2021 Assembly polls from Thrissur.He remained active in Thrissur, extending a helping hand to many and taking up the Karuvannur cooperative bank scam.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made two consecutive visits in less than a month to Thrissur, the second one to attend the wedding of Gopi’s daughter’s, underscoring the significance the party attaches to this constituency.

With three high-profile candidates in the electoral arena, Thrissur has undeniably become Kerala’s spotlight constituency, where predictions become impossible