Thiruvananthapuram: After a neck-and-neck fight, Congress incumbent MP Shashi Tharoor has won Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat against BJP's Rajeev Chandrasekhar for a record fourth term.
In the early trends, BJP's Rajeev Chandrasekhar was leading by over 20,000 votes. However, Tharoor later gained the lead, according to ECI data. The Congress incumbent MP won the seat by a margin of over 16,077 votes.
Tharoor said that the BJP put up an enormous fight and described it as a super over condition. "This is a blessing for the fourth time, and I will do my best to be worthy of that trust to serve them well. The world T20 is going on, but the super over was here. The BJP put up an enormous fight. One important message from Suresh Gopi in Thrissur is that his systematic outreach to minority communities. It is a very strong message to the BJP that a communal campaign won't go very far in Kerala," Tharoor said.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar expressed his disappointment over the loss but affirmed his commitment to the people of Thiruvananthapuram. "It is disappointing given that we worked very hard. We ran a very positive campaign. 3.4 lakh people supported us, which is a record number. I believe we are on the right track. I am disappointed that I could not win. My commitment to Thiruvananthapuram and its people remains steadfast," Rajeev said.
Thiruvananthapuram went to the polls on April 26 and recorded a voter turnout of 66.46 per cent. Congress leader Tharoor has maintained a winning streak from 2009 to 2019 in this seat.
The constituency consists of coastal zone, hill area, rural as well as urban regions. Of the total voters, three fourth are urban voters. The voter's behaviour also varies according to their surroundings. Thiruvananthapuram has around 20 percent Christian voters and 14 percent Muslim voters. Major Christian groups like Latin Catholic, Syro Malabar Catholic, CSI, Syro Malankara Catholics and Nadars remain a larger vote bank for any fronts.
Thiruvananthapuram saw a huge dip in voting percentage in this general election. The voter turnout was 66.47%. In the 2019 and 2014 general elections, the polling percentage in this constituency was 73.45 and 68.63 respectively.
Shashi Tharoor's first victory came in 2009 in Thiruvananthapuram when he won by a margin of 99998 votes. He served as the Minister of State for Human Resource Development and Minister of State for External Affairs in Congress-led UPA-1 and UPA-2 governments. In the 2019 polls, Tharoor scored a hat-trick with a margin of 99,989 votes over his nearest rival.
2024 contest: The total number of registered voters in this constituency in 2024 polls was 1430531, and the seat saw a voting turnout of 66.47% (950829 total count of votes), according to the Election Commission’s data. The seat went to polls in phase 2 on April 26, 2024.
In the 2019 LS Polls, Shashi Tharoor retained the seat, getting 416,131votes, comprising 41.19% of the total number of votes polled. He defeated Kummanam Rajasekharan of BJP by a margin of 99,989 votes. Tharoor had won from this seat in 2014 as well, polling 297,806 votes (34.10%) and defeating O Rajagopal of BJP by a margin of 15,470 votes.
