O. Rajagopal

O. Rajagopal Biography

O. Rajagopal is the most prominent BJP leader of Kerala. Though BJP has never won a seat in Kerala, either in State elections or Rajya Sabha elections, he played a significant role in bringing BJP thoughts among youth of Kerala. He has served the country as Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. His son Shyamaprasad is the most talented director of Malayalam cinema at present who always wins state awards and national awards for his movies. Not only that, his films have always represented India in many international film festivals.

Since the split of Janatha party in the year 1980, Rajagopal then served as the Kerala president of Bharatiya Janatha party (BJP) until 1985. After that he has decorated high positions of Bharata Janatha Party including All India Secretary, General Secretary, and the Vice President of BJP. Rajagopal represented Madhya Pradesh (though not his own state) in the Rajya Sabha from 1992 until 2004. He has never won a seat from Kerala. Yet his name is always counted among the greatest political leaders of Kerala.

O.Rajagopal was born on September 15, 1929 to Madhavan Nair and O. Konhikkavu Amma in Palakkad. His early education took place in Kanakkannoor elementary school, Palakkad. He completed his higher education at Government Victoria College, Palakkad. He also holds a degree in Law that he took from Chennai and has also practiced as a Lawyer at Palakkad District Court. He was inspired by Deendayal Upadhyaya and had worked for Jana Sangh after completing studies. He was the State General Secretary of Jana Sangh until 1974. Then he became the president of Jana Sangh and remained there till 1977.

In the Emergency period he was jailed in Viyyur jail. After Indian emergency period, the Jana Sangh merged with the Janata Party. Thus he became a part of Janata Party. But when this party got split in 1980, he joined BJP and became its Kerala president until 1985. In 1989, he was a candidate of BJP for Lok Sabha elections from Mancheri. But he couldn’t win the seat. Two years later, he attempted from Thiruvananthapuram constituency for Kerala state elections, but couldn’t win it. But he took chance from Madhya Pradesh next time and was elected the winner. He was elected in 1992 and 1998 to the Rajya Sabha. His second attempt from Thiruvananthapuram in the year 1999 was a failure again. But every year, he gained more votes than previous elections and it happened in his last election (2011) too, when he failed with a mere margin of only 6400 votes.

In 2016 State Assembly Elections, O. Rajagopal made a historic win from Nemon Constituency. He defeated V. Sivankutty of CPI(M) by 8671 votes, thus becoming the first MLA of Kerala State Assembly, representing Bharatiya Janata Party. In 2014 General Elections, victory slipped from his hands by mere 5000 votes. He was defeated by sitting MP, Sasi Tharoor belonging to Indian National Congress.

Published: N/A

Updated: May 23, 2016