A Clash Of Titans Between Tharoor And Chandrasekhar

New Delhi: The Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency is set to witness a high-profile contest with all the three political fronts in the fray, but the spotlight will be on the duel between the incumbent MP Shashi Tharoor and the BJP’s Rajeev Chandrasekhar. The BJP has fielded its Union Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who received a grand reception by the party workers when he arrived here on Monday night. The Minister was escorted by a huge convoy of vehicles from the airport to the heart of the city.

The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front has nominated former Thiruvananthapuram MP, Paniyan Ravindran, a seasoned CPI leader. Ravindran had won a bypoll from the same seat in 2005 after the demise of the sitting member, former Chief Minister and CPI veteran P.K. Vasudevan Nair.

The Congress is yet to declare its candidates’ list, but there is no suspense about who it will be, as it is obvious that Shashi Tharoor will be seeking re-election for the fourth consecutive time.

A former Undersecretary General at the United Nations, Shashi Tharoor was an unexpected choice when he came to India and after meeting the then Congress top brass secured a party ticket to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha polls from Thiruvananthapuram.

Since then he has achieved a hat-trick of victories and the only tough time he had to face was in 2014 after the sudden death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar at a luxury hotel in Delhi. In the 2019 polls he won with a margin of 99,989 votes, while in 2014 the margin was 15,470 and in his debut election in 2009 it was 99,998 votes.

Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, though a Malayalee has always been based out of Bengaluru, is well-known to Keralites. His name has been linked with the BPL TV after he married the company founder’s daughter. He was part of the then leading electronics company from 1994 till he sold his stakes in 2005.

Soon after the Union Minister landed here Monday night he started his campaign and said his focus will be to transform the state into a major IT hub.

Even though the capital city had the first IT park, Technopark, it has not reached to the level where it should have been,” said Chandrasekhar. This election is going to be more of a battle of personalities between the Congress and the BJP.

Interestingly, in the 2019 polls, the BJP came second here, while in the other 19 seats in the state, they had to settle for a distant third position.