"He couldn't even speak Malayalam properly, has no connection with anyone...": PC George on Anil Antony's LS poll defeat

POONJAR: Reacting to the defeat of Pathanamthitta BJP candidate Anil Antony in the Lok Sabha elections, PC George said that he could not even speak Malayalam properly during the election campaign. "Thomas Isaac is popular as a former finance minister. Anto Antony is the sitting MP and has won three terms here. But Anil Antony is a person who is not connected to anyone," he added.

"The entire Christian community of Thrissur voted for BJP candidate Suresh Gopi. Except for the Latin Christian community in Thiruvananthapuram, everyone else voted for the BJP. There was a wave of support for the BJP among the Christian community. But Pathanamthitta could not fully capitalize on that wave. It is because there was a fault in our candidate. There is no point taking about it. It has happened," George said.

PC George also replied to the question of whether the state leadership should be credited for BJP winning their first ever Lok Sabha seat in the state. "K Surendran is a leader with good leadership skills. There are many strong leaders in the BJP. If they all move forward unitedly, BJP will win more than 30 seats in the 2026 assembly elections," he added.

Meanwhile, despite PC George joining the BJP, the NDA's vote share in the Poonjar assembly constituency fell drastically. The NDA lost more than fourteen thousand votes this time compared to the last assembly election. NDA got 27,053 votes from Poonjar in the Lok Sabha election whereas PC George secured 41851 votes in the assembly elections.

But in other constituencies, there is a considerable increase in votes secured by NDA. NDA got 1,99,159 votes in the 2021 assembly from five assembly constituencies. This time, NDA votes increased to 2,34,406. In 2019, when the Sabarimala issue was raging, NDA got 2,97,396 votes. This time, they lost more than 60,000 votes. However, BJP says that the basic and political votes of the NDA have not decreased.