Thrissur (Kerala) | Shocked by his "unexpected" drubbing in the Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency, senior Congress leader K Muraleedharan on Tuesday announced that he won't contest elections anymore and would stay away from public life for some time.
Hours after the Election Commission announced the victory of BJP candidate Suresh Gopi in Thrissur constituency, Muraleedharan said he would have won if he contested from Vadakara segment this time as well.
Muraleedharan, a multiple-term MLA and MP and son of former chief minister late K Karunakaran, had to shift to the Thrissur segment from Vadakara at the last minute as per the direction of the party leadership, with the objective of thwarting the chances of the saffron party here.
Though he was highly confident about his victory and even mocked the BJP, saying that they could open an account only in a bank, Muraleedharan had to settle for the third position after Gopi and CPI's Sunilkumar, as the results were announced on Tuesday.
While addressing reporters here after the announcement of the results, an emotional Muraleedharan said he wouldn't have felt this much disappointment if the Left candidate had won.
"I have decided to stay away from contesting elections anymore... because I have lost the mood to contest polls. My decision is to stay away from public life itself for some time," he said.
Expressing his displeasure against the Congress's national leadership, the leader further said Prime Minister Modi came three times for the campaigning of Suresh Gopi, and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan came for Sunil Kumar.
"Only D K Shivakumar came for me...Rahul Gandhi could not attend the programme here as he suffered food poisoning. But there were others who could have come," Muraleedharan added.
While replying to a question, he also made it clear that he was not ending his political life forever but just staying away from it for sometime.
Gopi won the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat by a remarkable margin of 74,686, according to the Election Commission on Tuesday.
With this, the saffron party opened its maiden account in the state for the lower house of Parliament.
Gopi defeated CPI leader V S Sunilkumar in an exciting fight.
While Gopi garnered a total of 4,12,338 votes, Sunilkumar had to made do with 3,37,652 votes, according to the EC figures.
Muraleedharan settled in the third position with 3,28,124 votes, it said.
