Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader Olancheril.Rajagopal (86) has set a record of sorts by becoming the first party leader to be elected to the Kerala Assembly. Born at Pudukkode panchayat in Palakkad as the son of Madhavan Nair and O.Kunnhikavu Amma, on September 15, 1929, Mr.Rajagopal was inspired by the Deendayal Upadhyay and became a staunch activist of the Jan Sangh.
Following the demise of Upadhayay in 1968, he became the State general secretary of the Jan Sangh and held the position till 1974. Subsequently he was elevated to the post of president which he officiated till 1977. He was with other Jan Sangh leaders during the emergency. Mr.Rajagopal emerged as one of the prominent leaders of the Janata Party formed during the post-emergency period. Following the split in the Janata Party, Mr.Rajagopal joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980 and served as its State president till 1985. He had also officiated as its national general secretary and vice-president too.
He was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh in 1992 and held the portfolios of Parliamentary Affairs, Urban Development, Law, Justice and Company Affairs and Railways too in the A.B.Vajpaye Government. His electoral debut was to the Lok Sabha from Manjeri in 1989, but could not make it. He unsuccessfully contested to the Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram in 1991. Though he could not win the Lok Sabha elections from Thiruvananthapuram in 1999 he garnered about 20.9 per cent of the total polled votes.
Mr.Rajagopal succeeded in increasing the vote share in the 2004 Lok Sabha eletions from Thiruvananthapuram to 29.86 per cent and emerged runners up in Nemom during the Assembly election in 2011, winning 37.44 per cent votes. The winner, V.Sivankutty got 42.94 per cent votes. During the last Lok Sabha elections in 2014 too he emerged runners up from Thiruvananthapuram securing 33.53 per cent votes, but had to be satisfied with a poor third in the by-election to Aruvikkara Assembly segment in 2015.
Mr.Rajagopal described his win as a fitting reply to those who had scornfully said that the BJP leaders would able to enter the Assembly only as visitors. “This is a reply to A.K.Antony (Congress leader) and Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala who said that we would not open account in the Assembly,”he said in Thiruvananthapuram soon after the announcement of the results.
