THRISSUR: The BJP candidate in Thrissur will be pushed to the third position, said T N Prathapan, the UDF candidate of the constituency. The news on the concern regarding the victory in Thrissur is totally baseless, he added. The LDF will be in the second position and the UDF will win with a majority of at least 25,000 votes, he said.

Prathapan expressed his fears at the KPCC office-bearers’ meeting convened yesterday taking the Congress leaders by surprise. His anxiety is based on the fact that a large number of traditional UDF voters had voted for Suresh Gopi on the Sabarimala issue. There was a division of Hindu votes and the traditional votes of the UDF went in favour of the NDA candidate, Prathapan said yesterday.

Prathapan said that he was the victim of Rahul Gandhi’s candidature in Wayanad. NDA candidate Thushar Vellappally was shifted to Wayanad from Thrissur when Rahul decided to contest from Wayanad. Otherwise, I would have won with a majority of 150,000 votes. However, Prathapan has denied this.