Olanchery Rajagopal (born 15 September 1929) is an Indian politician, former

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Unio ...

Minister of State Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

, and the former MLA from

Nemom Nemom is a suburb of Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala, India. It is surrounded by Thirumala in the north, Malayinkeezhu in the north-east, Balaramapuram in the south-east, Kovalam in the south and Thiruvallam in the west. Nem ...

and the first

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

member & its floor leader in the Legislative Assembly of

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

. One of the major leaders of the

from Kerala, he has held various ministerial portfolios including Defence, Parliamentary Affairs, Urban Development, Law, Justice, Company Affairs, and Railways. Candidate Watch - 'O. Rajagopal, BJP candidate, Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat'

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

- 28 April 2004 Rajagopal was a two-time MP in

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

, the upper house of Indian Parliament from 1992 till 2004. O.Rajagopal was also a member of

Government of Kerala The Government of Kerala (abbreviated as GoK), also known as the Kerala Government, is the administrative body responsible for governing the Indian States and territories of India, state of Kerala. The government is led by a chief minister, who ...

's Legislative Assembly Committee on Petitions & Committee of Public Work, Transport and Communications. In addition, he was honored with the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan (IAST: ''Padma Bhūṣaṇa'', lit. 'Lotus Decoration') is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 Januar ...

, the third-highest civilian honor in the country, on the eve of India's 75th Republic Day. The award recognizes his contributions in the public sphere. He also served as the

BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Since 2014, ...

parliamentary party deputy leader in the

. Rajagopal was also the former BJP national vice president & state president of BJP in Kerala. Rajagopal lost the 2014 Lok sabha elections in the

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the Capital city, capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the ...

constituency by a narrow margin of 13000 votes after a close fight. He has also lost few assembly elections by a low margin. Union Government planned to make O. Rajagopal the next State Governor of

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

after his term ended as an MLA in the Kerala Legislative Assembly in May 2021. But he gave away the offer later by Central government that allows another Kerala BJP leader

P. S. Sreedharan Pillai P. S. Sreedharan Pillai (born 1 December 1954) is an Indian politician, attorney, and author, who has served as the Governor of Goa, 19th Governor of Goa from July 2021 to July 2025. He also served as the governor of Mizoram from 2019 to 2021, ...

who is then Governor of Mizoram and transferred to Goa as the new Governor.

Early life

He was born on Thiruvonam day, 15 September 1929 to Pandalam Kunnathu Madhavan Nair and O. Konhikkavu Amma of Olanchery Veedu in Pudukkode Panchayath in

Palakkad Palakkad (), Renaming of cities in India, also known as Palghat, historically known as Palakkattussery, is a city and a municipality in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of P ...

. He is the eldest of the six children born to his parents. His early education took place in Kanakkannoor elementary school and Manjapra Upper Primary school and later went to

Government Victoria College, Palakkad The Government Victoria College in Palakkad is an institution of higher learning in the Malabar region of Kerala. It is affiliated to the Calicut University and provides undergraduate and postgraduate education in science, arts and commerce su ...

. His Law education was undertaken in

Government Law College, Chennai Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College, commonly known by its former name Madras Law College, is a law school, located in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India. It is also referred to as Government Law College or GLC, Chennai. It was established in ...

and after he completed his studies in law, he began practicing law in 1956 at the Palakkad District Court.Life & Career
- Keral.com

Jana Sangh work

He was inspired by

Deendayal Upadhyaya Deendayal Upadhyaya (25 September 1916 – 11 February 1968), known by the epithet Panditji, was an Indian politician, a proponent of integral humanism ideology and leader of the political party Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), the forerunner of Bh ...

and began working in the

Bharatiya Jana Sangh The Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh ( BJS or JS, short name: Jan Sangh) was a Hindutva political party active in India. It was established on 21 October 1951 in Delhi by three founding members: Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Balraj Madhok and Deendayal ...

, shortly after completing his studies. The death of Upadhyaya in 1968 spurred Rajagopal to pursue his public career more deeply. He was the State General Secretary of Jana Sangh until 1974. That same year, he was promoted to the post of President, a post he held until 1977.Positions Held
- Keral.com During the Emergency period he was jailed with V. Velankutty, who was the Palakkad District President of Jana Sangh in Viyyur Central Jail. After the

Indian Emergency The Emergency in India was a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency across the country by citing internal and external threats to the country. Officially issued by President Fakhruddi ...

, the Jana Sangh merged with the

Janata Party The Janata Party (JP, ) is an unrecognised political party in India. Navneet Chaturvedi is the current president of the party since November 2021, replacing Jaiprakash Bandhu. The JP was established as an amalgam of Indian political partie ...

. During this period of time Rajagopal served as the State General Secretary for the Jana Sangh.

BJP work

In 1980, the Janata Party split and the

(BJP) was formed. Rajagopal then served as its Kerala president until 1985. After 1985 he occupied a number of positions, including the All India Secretary, General Secretary, and the Vice-President of BJP. In 1989 he ran for a

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

from

Manjeri Manjeri () is a major town and municipality in Malappuram district, Kerala, India. It is the fourth-most populous List of cities and towns in Kerala, municipality in the state. It is situated southeast of Calicut International Airport, Karipur ...

but lost. Two years later, he contested in

seat and lost again. His next run took place in the state of

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

. He was elected in 1992 and 1998 to the

. In 1999 he attempted a second run from

but failed again. However, he got a total of 1,58,221 votes (20.9%) and came second in one assembly segment out of seven. The total number of votes he secured was much higher than that for the previous BJP candidate in 1998 (94,303 votes, 12.3%) and 1996 (74,904, 10.4%) Lok Sabha elections. In 2004 Lok Sabha election, he contested for the third time from Thiruvananthapuram and finished third yet again, behind INC candidate V. S Shivakumar and CPI candidate P. K. Vasudevan Nair. He secured a total of 2,28,052 votes (29.9%) which was the highest votes secured by a BJP candidate in Kerala. In the 2011 Assembly elections he contested from the Nemom constituency in Thiruvananthapuram, but eventually lost by a margin of 6,400 votes. He lost the by-election from

Neyyattinkara Neyyattinkara is a municipal town in Thiruvananthapuram district, Kerala, India. It also serves as the administrative headquarters of Neyyattinkara taluk. Nestled along the banks of the Neyyar River, one of the district's principal rivers, the ...

, which was held on 2 June 2012. However, he increased the BJP votes from 6,730 (2011 Assembly Election) to 30,507; an almost five-fold increase within a span of a year. The BJP vote share also significantly increased from 6.0% in the 2011 election to 23.2%. He contested from

for the fourth time in

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

and finished second position, behind INC candidate

Shashi Tharoor Shashi Tharoor (; born 9 March 1956) is an Indian politician, author, and former diplomat, who has been serving as Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, since 2009. He is currently the Chairman of Committee on External Affairs. ...

who was former UPA Minister at the central government. Rajagopal secured a total of 2,82,336 votes (32.3%) and lost by a margin of 15,470 votes (1.8%) against Tharoor, who had secured 2,97,806 votes. He contested

Aruvikkara Aruvikkara is a panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram district in the state of Kerala India. It is located on the banks of the Karamana River, 15 km from Thiruvananthapuram. Aruvikkara is the capital of the state of Kerala in South India and o ...

by-election and finished third, although his personal influence ensured that in the contest

increased votes from 7,694 to 34,145 causing division of anti-incumbency vote resulting in the victory of UDF. In the 2016 Assembly elections he contested from Nemom and defeated the sitting MLA

V. Sivankutty Vasudevan Sivankutty (born 10 November 1954) is an Indian politician, currently serving as the Minister for General Education and Labour, Government of Kerala. He represents the Nemom Constituency in the 15th Kerala Legislative Assembly. Si ...

, by a margin of 8,671 votes, thereby entering Kerala Legislative Assembly for the first time at the age of 87.

Lok Sabha Elections

2014 Lok Sabha Election

2004 Lok Sabha Election

1999 Lok Sabha Election

Kerala Assembly Elections

Assembly election 2016

Aruvikkara by-election 2015

Neyyattinkara By-Election 2012

Assembly election 2011

Assembly election 2006

Assembly election 1970

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rajagopal, O. 1929 births Living people Rajya Sabha members from Madhya Pradesh National Democratic Alliance candidates in the 2014 Indian general election Government Victoria College, Palakkad alumni Bharatiya Jana Sangh politicians Indian people imprisoned during the Emergency (India) Hindu revivalists Activists from Kerala Politicians from Palakkad district Kerala MLAs 2016–2021 Malayali politicians Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Kerala