Olanchery Rajagopal (born 15 September 1929) is an Indian politician, former Union Minister of State, and the former MLA from Nemom and the first Bharatiya Janata Party member & its floor leader in the Legislative Assembly of Kerala. One of the major leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party from Kerala, he has held various ministerial portfolios including Defence, Parliamentary Affairs, Urban Development, Law, Justice, Company Affairs, and Railways. Rajagopal was a two-time MP in Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian Parliament from 1992 till 2004. O.Rajagopal was also a member of Government of Kerala's Legislative Assembly Committee on Petitions & Committee of Public Work, Transport and Communications. In addition, he was the first BJP Central Minister from Kerala and also served as the BJP parliamentary party deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha. 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 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 after his term ended as an MLA in the Kerala Legislative Assembly in May 2021. But he gave away the offer later by Central govt. that allows another Kerala BJP leader PS Sreedharan Pillai who is then Governor of Mizoram and transferred to Goa as the new Governor.
