Suresh Gopi: No Vote Plea Until AIIMS Foundation Is Laid in Keralam
Union Minister of State for Petroleum Suresh Gopi, MP, has said he will not come seeking votes without first laying the foundation for an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) campus in Keralam. He made the remark in Thrissur on Wednesday (October 7, 2026) and said he would stick to that position.
The statement is the latest in an ongoing public exchange between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Thrissur and State Health Minister K. Muraleedharan over Keralam's two-decade-old demand for an AIIMS — a demand that has so far remained unfulfilled.
The dispute intensified after the Union government recently told the Kerala High Court that an AIIMS in Keralam was not an immediate priority for the BJP-led Central government. The Centre said the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) focuses on States with weaker healthcare infrastructure, and that Keralam already has a robust medical and research ecosystem. The submission prompted the High Court to ask whether the State's superior health indicators were, in effect, working against its claim to an AIIMS.
Mr. Gopi alleged that successive Left Democratic Front (LDF) and United Democratic Front (UDF) governments in Keralam had been unwilling to allow an AIIMS campus in his Thrissur constituency. He said he had suggested the expansive campus of the Kerala Agricultural University at Vellanikkara in Thrissur as a possible site, with Alappuzha district as a second option.
He also claimed that former Revenue Minister and Communist Party of India (CPI) leader K. Rajan, among other non-BJP politicians who had not prioritised Thrissur as an AIIMS location, now backed his demand.
Mr. Gopi denied that the Centre was opposed to an AIIMS in Keralam. "Union Health Minister J. P. Nadda had told Keralam MPs that the State would get an AIIMS at the appropriate time," he said.
He also objected to media reports that portrayed his talks with Mr. Muraleedharan and Chief Minister V. D. Satheesan on the AIIMS demand as evidence of a "BJP-Congress deal". Mr. Gopi accused the LDF and UDF governments of failing to place any concrete proposal, including possible sites, before the Central government. He further said that Congress-led governments at the Centre had earlier rejected Keralam's aspiration for an AIIMS, and that neither the LDF nor the UDF had objected at the time.
Mr. Gopi reiterated his challenge for an open debate on the AIIMS question with Mr. Muraleedharan.
Mr. Muraleedharan dismissed the dare on Wednesday, saying he did not view the Union Minister as a conventional politician who was in touch with the aspirations of Keralam. He also challenged Mr. Gopi to come up with a definite proposal on the proposed location of the institution.
Keralam's demand for an AIIMS dates back roughly two decades. The PMSSY, launched in 2003, was designed to set up AIIMS-like institutions and upgrade medical colleges, with priority given to States lagging on health infrastructure. Keralam's comparatively strong health indicators have been cited by the Centre as the reason for the State not figuring in the immediate list of beneficiaries — the very point the High Court sought clarification on.
No site has been finalised so far, and neither the Centre nor the State government has announced a timeline. The exchange between the two leaders underlines how the demand, long a subject of State-Centre negotiation, has now acquired an electoral edge in Thrissur.
