Lok Sabha Election 2024: More jolts for Congress, Padmini Thomas and Thampanoor Satheesh join BJP

After Padmaja Venugopal, Padmini Thomas and Thampanoor Satheesh joined the BJP in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday (Mar 14) giving another blow to the Congress party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Thiruvananthapuram: In another jolt to the Congress party, Padmini Thomas and Thampanoor Satheesh joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the capital city on Thursday (Mar 14) at the election committee office in the presence of BJP candidate and Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar. Former Congress leaders were welcomed into the BJP by Kerala BJP state president K Surendran. 

Former DCC General Secretaries Thampanoor Satheesh, Udayan, former president of Kerala Sports Council Padmini Thomas and her son Danny John Selvan visited the election committee office of BJP in Thiruvananthapuram today and accepted their membership. 

Asian Games medallist and former President of Kerala Sports Council Padmini Thomas ended her long ties with the Congress. She also served as the state president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee’s sports forum. She was considered the Congress' mayoral candidate in Thiruvananthapuram municipality in the 2020 local body elections but was later denied a seat.

K Surendran had announced that prominent Congress leaders from the Thiruvananthapuram district will join the BJP on Thursday. Padmini confirmed this development and expressed her intention to speak out after formally accepting the party membership. The development comes after Padmaja Venugopal, former Congress leader and daughter of late former Congress Chief Minister of Kerala K Karunakaran joined the BJP last week.

Thampanoor Satheesh was the former DCC general secretary who quit the party on Sunday (Mar 10) citing dissatisfaction with being neglected during the KPCC reorganization.