Tharoor or Chandrasekhar? Kerala's capital braces for battle of titans

A stronghold of Congress since the 1980s, Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat has been sending flamboyant Shashi Tharoor to the Parliament for the last 15 years.

But will Congress’ Tharoor be able to retain the seat fourth time too in the face of a stiff challenge mounted by BJP, which has fielded Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar this time.

Thiruvananthapuram is one of the few seats among Kerala’s 20 odd constituencies where the saffron party, which is trying hard to gain a foothold in the southern state, has been securing the second spot in the past two Lok Sabha polls. It will go to the polls in phase 2 on April 26. 

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, BJP’s O Rajagopal gave Tharoor a tough fight as the latter defended his seat only by a margin of less than 16,000 votes.

Rajagopal holds the distinction of being the first and only BJP MLA from Kerala. He became an MLA from Nemon in 2016, which comes under the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat. However, in the 2021 state polls, Rajagopal lost the seat to a CPI(M) candidate.

But both Tharoor and Chandrasekhar are considered “outsiders” by their detractors.

They have reasons too.

While Tharoor was born in London to Malyali parents, who were from Palakkad; Chandrasekhar was born in Ahmedabad and his parents were from Thrissur. And both of them spent most their lives outside Kerala, and were not much active in local politics before jumping into the fray.

CPI’s Pannyan Raveendran, the LDF candidate from Thiruvananthapuram, is using the term “outsider” for both of them during his campaigns. Raveendran has been an MP from Thiruvananthapuram from 2005-09.

While Congress has been holding the Lok Sabha seat for over a decade now, its hold over assembly seats has loosened. In the 2021 Assembly polls, the state’s ruling LDF alliance won six while Congress managed only one Assembly seat from the capital.

Tharoor’s winning margins have never been high and in a three-way contest, he has always prevailed by a margin of less than 1 lakh votes.

According to experts, the fishing community, primarily Christians, residing on the coastal areas of Thiruvananthapuram have largely stood behind Tharoor in Parliamentary polls.

The minority population of Kerala, Christians and Muslims, too have traditionally voted for the Congress-led UDF.

But will he continue to enjoy their support? Only time will tell.