Congress incumbent MP Shashi Tharoor has won Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat for a record fourth term, defeating BJP’s Rajeev Chandrasekhar in a neck-and-neck fight. Early trends showed BJP’s Rajeev Chandrasekhar leading by over 20,000 votes, but Tharoor later gained the lead, according to ECI data.
Tharoor won the seat by a margin of over 16,077 votes. Tharoor described the election as a “super over condition” and thanked the people of Thiruvananthapuram for their trust. “This is a blessing for the fourth time, and I will do my best to be worthy of that trust to serve them well,” he said. Rajeev Chandrasekhar expressed disappointment over the loss but reaffirmed his commitment to the people of Thiruvananthapuram.
The constituency went to the polls on April 26 and recorded a voter turnout of 66.46 per cent. Tharoor has maintained a winning streak from 2009 to 2019 in this seat. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP is ahead in 296 seats, while the INDIA bloc is leading in 228 seats, indicating a significant gain for the latter, according to the latest trends. The Congress, which won merely 52 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, is currently leading in 98 seats, while the BJP is ahead in 241 seats