Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, has always been a Congress stronghold. From time to time communist parties have also won there. But in the last 3 Lok Sabha elections, no one could shake the Congress in Thiruvananthapuram constituency. The reason is a single person named Sasidharoor. Sasidharoor was an excellent MP with excellent administration, prompt resolution of constituency issues, an educated candidate and raising intractable issues in Parliament. Because of this, the people of Thiruvananthapuram did not abandon him the last 3 times.
In this case, the Communist Party and the BJP fielded their strong candidates in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections with the intention of defeating Sasitharoor somehow. Accordingly, Banyan Ravindran on behalf of the Marxist Communist Party and Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekaran on behalf of the BJP were dropped from the field. Rajeev Chandrasekhar has huge influence in Thiruvananthapuram, making it a big headache for the Congress.
In this case, as expected, in the first vote count this morning, BJP’s Rajiv Chandrasekhar was putting a lot of pressure on Sasidharoor. Later in the afternoon, Rajeev Chandrasekhar took the lead, pushing Sasidharoor back. This led to a situation where BJP will win in Thiruvananthapuram and create a new history. While BJP candidate Suresh Gopi has already won in Thrissur, if BJP captures Thiruvananthapuram, it will change the history of Kerala.
It was in this context that Sasitharur started to take the lead above 1 pm. However, he was leading by a margin of just 1000, 3000 votes and this created a scenario where anything could happen in the subsequent rounds. However, the last 2 rounds of voting were held there around 3 pm. In this, the Congress candidate Sasidharoor defeated BJP’s Rajiv Chandrasekhar by a narrow margin amid tight competition. Sasidharoor polled a total of 3,51,304 votes.
