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BJP has once again failed to open its account in Kerala, despite its senior leader O Rajagopal putting up a strong performance finishing runner-up to Congress's Shashi Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram.
Though Rajagopal led in the initial rounds of counting, his stock slid in the later stages and he lost to Tharoor by a margin of over 13,000 votes.
LDF candidate Bennet Abraham (CPI) finished third in one of the keenly-watched contests in the state capital of Thiruvanathapuram where the saffron party had pinned its hope of ending decades of electoral jinx.
