O. Rajagopal (born September 15, 1929) is an Indian politician who has served as a Union Minister of State. He is one of the major leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party from Kerala. He held portfolios like Defence and Parliamentary Affairs, Urban Development, Law, Justice and Company Affairs, and Railways.[1] Rajagopal represented Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh (1992-2004).[2][3]
Early life
He was born on September 15, 1929 to Madhavan Nair and O. Konhikkavu Amma of Olanchery veedu at Pudukkode Panchayath in Palakkad. His early education took place in Kanakkannoor elementary school and Manjapra Upper Primary school and later went to Government Victoria College, Palakkad.His sisters son live in Nashik
His Law education was undertaken in Chennai and after he completed his studies in law, he began practicing law in 1956 at the Palakkad District Court.[4]
Jana Sangh work
He was inspired by Deendayal Upadhyaya and began working in the Jana Sangh shortly after completing his studies. The death of Upadhyaya in 1968 spurred Rajagopal to pursue his public career more deeply. He was the State General Secretary of Jana Sangh until 1974. That same year, he was promoted to the post of President, a post he held until 1977.[4][5]
In the Emergency period he was jailed with Mr. V. Velankutty Master (Palakkad District President of Jansangh) in Viyyur Central Jail. After the Indian emergency the Jana Sangh merged with the Janata Party. During this period of time Rajagopal served as the State General Secretary for the Jana Sangh.
BJP work
In 1980, the Janata Party split and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was formed. Rajagopal then served as its Kerala president until 1985.After 1985 he occupied a number of positions, including the All India Secretary, General Secretary, and the Vice President of BJP.[4] In 1989 he ran for a Lok Sabha from Manjeri but failed. Two years later, he attempted to run for the Trivandrum (Lok Sabha constituency) seat but failed again. His next run took place in the state of Madhya Pradesh. He was elected in 1992 and 1998 to the Rajya Sabha. In 1999 he attempted a second run from Thiruvananthapuram but failed again.[1] However, he got a total of 158,221 votes (20.9%) and came second in one assembly segment out of seven.[6] The total number of votes he secured was much higher than that for the BJP candidate in 1998 (94,303 votes, 12.3%) [7] and 1996 (74,904, 10.4%) Loksabha elections.[8] In 2004 Loksabha election, he again contested from Thiruvananthapuram parliament constituency and finished third, behind congress candidate V S Shivakumar (second position) and CPI candidate P. K. Vasudevan Nair (Winner). Even though, he was in the third position, he secured a total of 228,052 votes (29.9%) which was the highest votes secured by a BJP candidate in Kerala. The difference between the second and the third positions was only a margin of 3402 votes (0.5%). P. K. Vasudevan Nair won that elections securing 286,057 votes (37.6%). Mr. O. Rajagopal was leading first in two assembly segments (Trivandrum North and Trivandrum East) and came second in two assembly segments (Trivandrum West and Nemom). In 2006, there were rumors that Rajagopal would contest elections from Palakkad in the assembly elections for Kerala.[9]
In the 2011 Assembly elections he contested from the Nemom constituency in Thiruvananthapuram and was speculated to win, but eventually lost by a margin of 6,400 votes. He lost the by-election from Neyyattinkara constituency, which was held on June 2, 2012. However, he increased the BJP votes from 6730 (2011 Assembly Election) to 30507; an almost five-fold increase within a short span of one year.[10] The BJP vote share also significantly increased from 6.0% (2011 Assembly Election) to 23.2%. He contested Loksabha election 2014 from Trivandrum constituency and finished second position after a neck-to-neck fight against the congress candidate Dr. Shashi Tharror who was former UPA Minister at the central government.[11] He secured a total of 282,336 votes (32.3%) and lost the election battle by a sizeable margin of 15,470 votes (1.8%) against Dr. Shashi Tharoor who secured a total of 297,806 votes.[11] The CPI candidate Dr. Bennet Abraham got 248,941 votes (28.5%). Rajagopal was leading first in four assembly segments (Nemom, Kazhakkoottam, Thiruvananthapuram and Vattiyoorkav) and was third in three assembly segments (Parassala, Kovalam and Neyyattinkara). Congress was leading in three assembly segments (Parassala, Kovalam and Neyyattinkara) and was second in the four assembly segments where O. Rajagopal came first.[11] In 2015 June he contested Aruvikkara by-election and lost another election ending third although his personal influence ensured that in the contest BJP increased votes from 7694 to 34145 causing division of anti-incumbency vote resulting in the victory of UDF. The election brought back memories of Late KG Marar former Kerala BJP leader losing in a similarly closely contested election from Manjeshwaram constituency to Muslim League's candidate Cherukulum Abdullah.
Aruvikkara by-election 2015
| Aruvikkara by-election 2015: |
| Party |
Candidate |
Votes |
% |
±% |
|
INC |
Sabarinathan |
56448 |
39.61 |
-10.47 |
|
CPI(M) |
M.Vijayakumar |
46320 |
32.50 |
-7.11 |
|
BJP |
O. Rajagopal |
34145 |
23.90 |
+17.29 |
[12]
2014 Lok Sabha Election
Neyyattinkara By-Election 2012
| Neyyattinkara By Election 2012 |
| Party |
Candidate |
Votes |
% |
±% |
|
INC |
R Selvaraj |
52528 |
|
|
|
CPI(M) |
F. Lawrence |
46194 |
|
|
|
BJP |
O. Rajagopal |
30507 |
|
|
Assembly election 2011
| Nemom Assembly constituency |
| Party |
Candidate |
Votes |
% |
±% |
|
CPI(M) |
V Sivan Kutty |
50076 |
42.94% |
|
|
BJP |
O. Rajagopal |
43661 |
37.44% |
|
|
SJ(D) |
Charupara Ravi |
20248 |
17.36% |
|
2004 Lok Sabha Election
References
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