The Aryavarth Express
Agency (Kerala): The defeat of Anil Antony from the Pathanamthitta seat has sparked backlash from within the BJP and NDA. Anil, who quit the Congress last year and joined the BJP, was quickly made the party’s national secretary.
In Pathanamthitta, the BJP’s vote share fell to 25.5 percent, down from 28.95 percent in 2019. This is one of three constituencies where the BJP’s vote share has decreased since the last election.
BJP state president K. Surendran contested from this seat in 2019, boosting the vote share to 28.95 percent from 17.4 percent in 2014, particularly in the aftermath of the Sabarimala protests.
This year’s loss led senior NDA leader P.C. George to criticize Anil, the son of veteran Congress leader A.K. Antony. George argued that Anil has no connection with the area and does not speak the local language. “He could not even win the BJP votes. He lost because he has no connection with the land. The senior party leadership just handed over the constituency to him,” George said.
George compared Anil to Suresh Gopi, who won in Thrissur by building a relationship with the local community. George had opposed Anil’s candidature since it was announced in March, suggesting that other leaders like Surendran, Ramesh, Kummanam Rajasekharan, or Sreedharan Pillai could have won the seat.
In the 20 constituencies in Kerala, the BJP’s vote share dipped only in Malappuram (0.06 percent), Chalakudy (4.36 percent) where the BJP’s ally Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) contested, and Pathanamthitta.
Despite these setbacks, the BJP’s overall vote share in Kerala increased to 19.21 percent from 15.6 percent in the 2019 general election. Suresh Gopi won the Thrissur constituency with a margin of 74,686 votes, securing 37.8 percent of the vote share.
Union minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar, who contested in Thiruvananthapuram, lost to three-time MP Shashi Tharoor by only 16,077 votes, but increased the BJP’s vote share to 35.5 percent from 31.13 percent in 2019. In Attingal, union minister V. Muralidharan also increased the BJP’s vote share to 31.6 percent from 24.66 percent in 2019.