By our special political correspondent
Thrissur, March 10 (IVC) Attention of national and international media were drawn to the ensuing election of the Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency , with the conditional offer of gold worth Rs 10 lakh to the deity ( Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus) of the Lourdes Cathedral in the heart of the city by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate and noted cine star Mr Suresh Gopi.
Gopi had stated in public on March 05 in Thrissur that he would offer gold worth Rs 10 lakh (Ten lakh rupees) if he won the Lok Sabha election from Thrissur Constituency.
The controversy over the gold crown offered by the cine star to the deity of the Lourdes Cathedral on January 15 on the eve of his daughter’s marriage at Guruvayur was still thick whether it was gold or copper.
The cine star had offered a crown to the deity of the Lourdes Cathedral where Virgin Mary ( the mother of Jesus) was dedicated to perpetuate her apparition to shepherd childrenat Lourdes (France) many many years ago.
The national media had given wide coverage to Gopi’s offering crown to the Lourdes Cathedral, on the eve of his daughter’s marriage in which the Honourable Prime Minister of India Mr Narendra Damodar Modi had participated in the wedding and blessed the couples.
Since BJP’s governance of the country since 2014, there were wide spread attacks on churches, convents and their educational institutions and false criminal cases had been registered against nuns and priests, besides murdering several Christian faithful.
It had been confirmed by the latest report released by ’India Hate Lab, a Washington DC-based group that documented hate speech against India’s religious minorities. The report titled ‘Hate Speech Events in India’ noted that while 255 events took place in the first half of 2023’ the rose to 413 in the second half of the year. A 62 per cent increase.
The details are very revealing. As per the report, nearly 75 per cent of the events took place in the BJP-ruled States and Union Territories, administered by the BJP-led Central Government
Mr Suresh Gopi had announced publicly on March 05 at Thrissur that he would offer pure gold worth Rs 10 lakh if he won the election to the 18th Lok Sabha from Thrissur.
To give more importance to Thrissur, freedom fighter and veteran Congresss leader K Karunakaran’s son , K Muraleedharan had been nominated by the Indian National Congress as candidate from Thrissur constituency . Muraleedharan’s nomination was a a retort to hes direct sister Padmaja Venugopalan’s joining the BJP.
CPI nominated V S Sunil Kumar as the party’s candidate fro Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency.
All these three candidates have started election work at their best, though the date for elections to the 18th Lok Sabha has not yet been officially announced. The ground for a tight election fight in The Thrissur Lok Sabha was well set as all the candidates are hopeful of winning the election.
The BJP candidate has sought the help of the divine power by offering a corban of gold worth Rs 10 lakh to the Virgin Mmary. With this BJP workers believe that it would bring certain Percentage of Christian votes to the party this time and would pave the way for his success .
Normally Christians voted for Indian National Congress for Gopi has shown loyalty and faith in the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency consisted of 24.50 Christian electorate and 15.97 per cent Muslim electorate. The leaning of Christian voters was a determining factor in the victory of the election.
