
Follow TNM's WhatsApp channel for news updates and story links.
Amid allegations of illegal additions to the voters list in Kerala’s Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state vice-president B Gopalakrishnan said the party will continue to add names to the electoral rolls to win elections. “We will extensively add voters to win the election, in those constituencies we want to win,” he told the media on Friday, August 22.
“We will add individuals to the electoral rolls even from Jammu and Kashmir after making them stay in the constituency for one year. We will continue to do that,” he said.
Gopalakrishnan added, “What if someone from Kashmir wants me, who is contesting in Kerala, to win? He can come from Jammu and cast a vote for me here. There is nothing wrong with that.”
When reporters asked about whether the BJP has plans to do that for the upcoming Assembly election in Kerala, Gopalakrishnan said, “We will decide about that later.”
Thrissur is the only constituency in Kerala that the BJP managed to win in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, marking Suresh Gopi the first BJP MP in Kerala’s history.
Thrissur went to polls on April 26, 2024. Both before and after the elections, the LDF and the UDF had filed multiple complaints with the Thrissur district collector, who also served as the District Election Officer. The complaints alleged that voters were fraudulently added in the names of persons who are not permanent residents, migrant workers, or even those unknown in the locality. However, no action was taken.
Following Rahul Gandhi’s allegations about electoral malpractices, both the United Democratic Front (UDF) and Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala raised the Thrissur related allegations again.