Union Minister and BJP candidate from Thiruvananthapuram, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, filed his nomination for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, accompanied by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. Chandrasekhar held a roadshow in Thiruvananthapuram before filing his nomination, seated on an open-roofed vehicle, greeting the people. A large number of BJP supporters and party members gathered on both sides throughout the roadshow.
Expressing confidence, Chandrasekhar stated, “It’s a big step forward in serving my city Thiruvananthapuram, and I look forward to people supporting me and their best wishes. The people of Thiruvananthapuram will decide, and I’m confident that they want a change, and they want an MP who can deliver.”
The Thiruvananthapuram parliamentary seat in Kerala is set for a ‘three-cornered fight’ with candidates from the BJP, Congress, and left parties in the fray. BJP has fielded Rajeev Chandrasekhar, while CPM-led LDF has fielded CPI leader Pannyan Raveendran, and Congress has fielded its sitting MP Shashi Tharoor from the constituency.
Kerala, where the Congress retains a strong presence, sends 20 parliamentarians to the Lok Sabha. Shashi Tharoor, a senior Congress leader and ex-Union minister, has been winning the Thiruvananthapuram seat since 2009 and filed his nomination from the constituency on Wednesday.
The BJP has never won a Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, with its only win in the Assembly polls from Nemam in Thiruvananthapuram district in 2016 by O Rajagopal. However, Chandrasekhar’s entry into the capital fray has turned it into a triangular contest, which will be closely watched in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Voting in Kerala for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections across all 20 seats is scheduled for April 26, with the counting of votes on June 4. In the 2019 polls, the BJP’s Kummanam Rajasekharan received 31.3 per cent of the votes, the highest among the 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) won 19 out of 20 seats, with the Congress winning 15 seats, the Indian Union Muslim League winning two, the Revolutionary Socialist Party winning one, and the Kerala Congress (M) winning one seat.