Suresh Gopi’s huge win from Thrissur Lok Sabha seat was one of the most stunning events in not just Kerala’s but India’s political history. Along with BJP’s unprecedented advance in the state, it marked the saffron party’s crowning glory in its breach of the country’s “last secular bastion” and also the apparent end of Kerala’s bipolar political tradition.
The underwhelming culmination of these spectacular events was the BJP central leadership's (read Modi's) stubborn refusal to acknowledge Kerala's historic result with a fitting reciprocation. It was widely expected that Gopi, the flag-bearer of this tectonic shift, would be duly recognised with a prominent berth in the new Union Cabinet or at least a Ministership of State with independent charge. Instead the super star-turned politician was relegated to the back benches (literally so as he sat in the last row of incumbent ministers waiting to be sworn in) to be called in as the 51st in the 73-member- Modi ministry as one among the 36 Ministers of State. He couldn't find a place either among the 30 cabinet members or the five Ministers with independent charge. Understandably, Gopi, used to the limelight, was peeved and openly said he would request the Prime Minister to relieve him from this position. At the time of his victory, Gopi had said that he might need to work with at least 10 ministries to do something substantial for Kerala. Though he explained that it was his acting commitments that made him difficult to take over ministerial positions, his true reason was too obvious to guess.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who lost the election only by a whisker in Thiruvananthapuram also deserved credit for BJP’s unprecedented performance in Kerala. He was expected to get a berth in the new ministry despite his narrow defeat, based on his valiant performance against the formidable Shashi Tharoor and also as an efficient Minister of State in the previous Modi cabinet. But that was not to be and Chandrasekhar tweeted the announcement of the end of his 18-year-long political career. Following a subsequent furore over his tweet, the entrepreneur - politician blamed it on his new staff member who prepared it and clarified he never intended to quit politics, but ended only his parliamentary tenure and that he would continue as a BJP karyakarta. Indeed, a cabinet minister in........