Elections 2024 | The Chaos at Thrissur Pooram Has Become a Hot Poll Topic

The blame game over who dampened the festivities continues to rage, with two top police officials being suspended.

When the chaos erupted with police restrictions, a section of the decorated elephants participating in the colourful umbrella exchange was withdrawn.

(Photo: PTI)

With the general elections around the corner in Kerala, disheartening chaos at the 36-hour-long Thrissur Pooram, a globally renowned cultural extravaganza organised by a coalition of 10 temples in Thrissur, has ignited political mudslinging and led to the suspension of top police officials. 

When the chaos erupted with police restrictions, a section of the decorated elephants participating in the colourful umbrella exchange was withdrawn. Energetic percussion ensembles and five-piece instrumental groups fell silent. Even the dazzling fireworks, intended to illuminate the early morning sky, fizzled out in broad daylight without the usual thunderous finale. 

The festival ended late in the afternoon of 20 April. However, the blame game over who dampened the festivities continues to rage. 

As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Lok Sabha candidate in Thrissur, Suresh Gopi, blamed the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Kerala government for the chaos, the Indian National Congress and its candidate, K Muraleedharan, stated that the chaos was created by the CPM to help the BJP garner more votes. 

Interestingly, V S Suni Kumar, the Communist Party of India candidate, refrained from solely blaming the state police. Despite the Thrissur Pooram descending into chaos, likely due to crowd management failures by the police and government authorities, Sunil Kumar did not blame the state government for its shortcomings, nor did he hold the Kerala Chief Minister and Home Minister Pinarayi Vijayan accountable for the lapses, as his party is also a part of the ruling coalition in Kerala.

Sunil Kumar is tasked with retaining the Thrissur Lok Sabha Constituency, traditionally known as a stronghold for his party, the CPI, from the INC. 

Vote Numbers

Although the BJP hasn't won a single parliamentary seat in Kerala, Thrissur is seen as a winnable constituency and the party has fielded Suresh Gopi from this seat. The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a rally in January where he reiterated Modi’s Guarantee to lure the voters. 

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, T N Prathapan of the INC won with 414,541 votes. The runner-up was Rajaji Mathew Thomas of the CPI party. The margin of victory was 93,654 votes.

The BJP’s candidate, Suresh Gopi, secured 293,822 votes and the actor-turned-politician raised BJP’s vote share from 11 percent in 2014 to 28 percent in 2019. Interestingly, despite the failure, Suresh Gopi continued to stay in Thrissur, lending an ear to constituent woes and extending a helping hand. 

In the 2021 Kerala assembly elections, Suresh Gopi stood as a BJP candidate in Thrissur and secured the third position. The difference between the winning candidate, P Balachandran, the current MLA from CPI, and Suresh Gopi was around 3,400 votes. Padmaja Venugopal, daughter of the late INC leader and former Kerala Chief Minister K Karunakaran, was the INC candidate who secured the second position in that assembly election. She lost the MLA seat by a little over 1,000 votes. Interestingly, she has now shifted her political allegiance and joined the BJP, which is once again making Thrissur Lok Sabha a winnable seat for Suresh Gopi. 

Initially targeting half a dozen winnable constituencies, the BJP has narrowed down the focus to just four with a few days left for the elections. It has zeroed in on Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram as potential victories. In Thiruvananthapuram, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, is putting up a tough fight against Dr Shashi Tharoor, the sitting MP for the third term.

Despite Padmaja joining the BJP, her elder brother K Muraleedharan, a sitting MP in the Vadakara constituency, was brought into Thrissur by the INC as a silent force. Muraleedharan, who has inherited his late father Karunakaran’s political acumen, effectively countered the single BJP assembly seat in 2021 by defeating O Rajagopal, the veteran BJP leader from the Vajpayee era.

Though Muraleedharan didn’t secure the assembly seat himself, his significant vote share contributed to the victory of the CPM candidate V Sivankutty, leading to Rajagopal's defeat. Essentially, Muraleedharan "eliminated" the BJP's presence in the assembly. Now, in Thrissur, as Suresh Gopi gains momentum, Muraleedharan, the silent slayer, is deployed by the INC. 

Display of Ram Lalla, Sri Ram

In response to the chaos at the Thrissur Pooram, Muraleedharan, while speaking to the media, accused the government of deliberately instigating trouble with the assistance of the police to benefit the BJP. He claimed to be a witness to the chaos caused by the police and suggested that the district police officials who were removed would regain their positions after the polls.

Muraleedharan alleged that there is a vote-trading deal between BJP and the Left in Thrissur. He has called for a judicial probe to investigate why the police incited the trouble. He further added that Suresh Gopi was nowhere to be seen during the festival. The actor allegedly arrived late at the scene in a Seva Bharati ambulance and was "showing off." 

Interestingly, Suresh Gopi has also called for a judicial probe into the chaos. However, the CPM has stated that it is solely the fault of the police.

Meanwhile, political observers have expressed their concerns about the surprise display of Ram Lalla, Sri Ram, and Ayodhya on caparisoned elephants at the Thrissur Pooram.

Many have voiced their apprehensions both offline and online. While some argue that the right wing is attempting to assert control over secular temple festivals, others believe that the increasing display of right-wing influence is becoming more evident in Kerala these days. 

In 2022, VD Savarkar was also featured with parasols on elephants during the Thrissur Pooram which turned into a controversy then. In short, the chaotic Thrissur Pooram has become a hot topic in the Thrissur constituency, which the BJP sees as a winnable seat. 

(Rejimon Kuttappan is an independent journalist and author of Undocumented [Penguin 2021]. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)