Kochi: The BJP state leadership has been embarrassed as its most popular face in Kerala claimed the United Democratic Front (UDF) candidates will emerge triumphant from the Guruvayur and Thalassery legislative assembly constituencies in the state election.
Actor and Rajya Sabha MP Suresh Gopi made the prediction that shocked the BJP camp the other day.
K Surendran, the President of the state unit of the BJP, has however dismissed the actor's comment saying that was his personal remark.
In both Guruvayur and Thalassery seats the BJP or its political combine has no formal candidates. The nomination papers filed by the two BJP candidates for contesting from these seats had failed the scrutiny of the returning officers a fortnight ago.
Adv Nivedida Subramanian and N Haridas were the BJP's candidate choices for Guruvayur and Thalassery. The party had performed quite well in the 2016 assembly election and fancied its chances this time.
Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister latched on to Suresh Gopi's remark to buttress his oft-repeated assessment that the BJP has an understanding with the Congress and the Muslim League, the two main parties of the UDF.
"Suresh Gopi's comment is not a slip of tongue," Pinarayi asserted.
But KPCC President Mullappally Ramchandran sympathised with the actor-politician and termed his comment as an instance of political naivety.
In Guruvayur the UDF candidate is KNA Khader of the Muslim League. The conservative votes that the BJP could have tapped is widely expected to go in Khader's favour rather than the LDF candidate NK Akbar of the CPM. The BJP leadership, though, has offered to support Dilip Nair, a candidate of the Democratic Socialist Justice Party which was tipped to join the National Democratic Alliance.
In Thalassery, the UDF candidate is M P Aravindakshan of the Congress. He is taking on CPM heavy-weight and sitting legislator AN Shamseer of the CPM. Shamseer had won by a margin of 34,117 votes in the 2016 state polls.