Kerala Assembly Results 2026 |BJP's Padmaja Venugopal loses Thrissur for third time

Padmaja Venugopal, daughter of former Kerala Chief Minister K. Karunakaran, failed to win from the Thrissur Assembly seat once again, marking her third consecutive loss despite her family’s strong political roots in the region.

As per data from the Election Commission of India, after 16 rounds of counting, Venugopal secured 28,662 votes and finished third. Alankode Leelakrishnan of the CPI polled 33,487 votes, while UDF candidate Rajan J Pallan won the seat with 60,290 votes.

Venugopal and the Bharatiya Janata Party had high expectations this time. In the 2021 election, she had narrowly lost as a Congress candidate by around 900 votes, and in 2016, her defeat margin was about 7,000 votes—both times to CPI.

However, this time the gap widened significantly, with Venugopal losing by 31,628 votes, according to EC figures.

During the campaign, she had expressed confidence in her chances, saying, "I am confident of winning from Thrissur as I have faith in the people from here and also because BJP is always concerned about the party's win and not who is going to contest. So, it will work hard to ensure the victory of its candidates. That is a huge relief for me."