Union Minister Suresh Gopi sparks row with remark that ‘those elected by corpses are cheating Kerala’

Union Minister Suresh Gopi courted controversy on Tuesday (September 30, 2025) by stating that those “elected by corpses” were “swindling the people of Kerala.”

Participating in a neighbourhood town hall meeting in Thrissur as part of his Kalingu Gathering Campaign, Mr. Gopi said “cadavers dead for 25 years” have voted in elections in the State. “You (the media) have reported the matter”, he said. 

Mr. Gopi noted that he did not win from Thiruvananthapuram or Thrissur (in the 2024 Lok Sabha election) where the BJP has sizeable pockets of influence. “I won in Thrissur by god’s grace. I am so emotional when I say this. My heart is beating hard, and I am struggling to hold back tears”, he added. 

In a rather grievance-laden speech, Mr. Gopi said he was the “victim” of a political witchhunt and vilification campaign. 

Mr. Gopi said the latest attack came in the form of the “falsehood” that he had recommended Tamil Nadu for setting up an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) coveted by Kerala, if the State government did not lobby the Centre to get the premium institution in Alappuzha or, secondly, Thrissur. 

Mr Gopi said the Kerala government lacked the jurisdiction to insist that the Centre should sanction the AIIMS in the land it had earmarked (at Kinalur in Kozhikode).

“I will resign as Minister and quit politics if these liars can prove that I lobbied for Tamil Nadu regarding AIIMS. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had promised me a Centre for Forensic Sciences Laboratory, Research and Training Institute in Thrissur. The Centre is moving forward with the file. However, the State government has attempted to obstruct the process by stating that it prefers Thiruvananthapuram for establishing the facility. It also noted that government land is unavailable for the project in Thrissur. I responded to this resistance by saying that let the Centre allocate the project to Stalin (Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin). I had Cumbum and Theni in mind as possible locations when I stated that”, he added. 

Mr. Gopi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked him why Alappuzha was not in the list of places for a possible AIIMS.

Mr. Gopi said that “valueless people with no destiny of their own” were hounding him with controversies. He said his accusers alleged that he offered copper (a circlet he gifted to a shrine for Mother Mary) instead of gold.

“They accused me of disrupting the Thrissur Pooram for electoral gain. When I am in Delhi doing my job, they say that I am never in Kerala. When I act in films, they say I am incapable of administration”, he said.