Olancherry Rajagopal has taken sweet revenge against senior Congress leader A.K. Antony and chief minister Oommen Chandy’s proclamation that the lotus will not bloom in Kerala. Mr Rajagopal, 86, has entered history books by becoming the first BJP MLA in the state representing Nemom constituency. Sceptics claim that the Congress has helped him to win as UDF candidate V. Surendran Pillai had to be content with third place.
Despite Mr Rajagopal tasting defeat eight times with victory eluding him almost every time between the cup and the lip, this time he defeated the CPI(M)’s V. Sivankutty by 8,671 votes. During the 2011 Assembly elections, he had come a second, behind Mr Sivankutty, with a vote share of 37.4 per cent. Even his political opponents vouch that “Rajettan”, as he is affectionately called by his colleagues, is the right man in the wrong party as victory had eluded him for so long despite his popularity and clean image.
Immediately after the results were announced, Mr Rajagopal quipped, “I thank all the women and youth who voted for me at Nemom” which showed his acceptance in the constituency cutting across age groups.
“This is a historic victory which has to be written in golden letters. Two years back, Narendra Modi government came at the Centre and that time Kerala was not in their agenda. But later on, the BJP national leadership gave a thrust for the state and we could ensure a victory this time,” he said.
Though Mr Rajagopal is the seniormost leader in the party, his innings has not been easy due to factionalism within the party. Many a time, the media reported that he would be given a gubernatorial post and would be packed off as governor up in the north. Fortunately or unfortunately, it did not work out. Halfway through his campaign, there were reports that Mr Rajagopal’s supporters had flocked from Nemom to Vattiyoorkavu, where BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan contested. But that did not deter Mr Rajagopal’s formidable win from Nemom.
It was in the 1960s that Mr Rajagopal started his political innings with the Bharatiya Jan Sangh and steadily became the state president and became a member of the BJP national executive council. During the previous NDA regime he was made a Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh in 1992 and 1998 and went on to hold Union portfolios like defence and parliamentary affairs, urban development, law, justice and company affairs, and railways. His tryst with defeat includes 1989 Lok Sabha elections from Manjeri, 1991, 1999, 2004 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Thiruvananthapuram, 2011 Assembly elections from Nemom in Thiruvananthapuram, 2012 Neyyatinkara Assembly by-election and 2015 Aruvikkara byelection.
