Thiruvananthapuram battle of the biggies: BJP feels it has answer for Shashi Tharoor

Both Chandrasekhar, 59, and Tharoor, 67, are high-profile faces, both suave and articulate leaders known for their various accomplishments. On the other hand, Raveendran, 78, has been positioning himself as an underdog.

The BJP, which has set a target of 370 seats this time, exudes confidence that it has fielded a candidate who can stand up to Tharoor’s stature.

Like Tharoor, Chandrasekhar also has a global perspective, navigating governance – he has been the Minister of State for IT and Skill Development since July 2021 – as well as the corporate sector. He has been a technology entrepreneur engaged in the semiconductor manufacturing sector.

The BJP believes Chandrasekhar is its best bet for Thiruvananthapuram, an aspirational middle class constituency.

Former UN diplomat, Tharoor is among the most popular Congress leaders in Kerala, whose image was further burnished after he contested, albeit unsuccessfully, the Congress presidential election in October 2022. Even in the 2014 elections, when he was faced with one of his toughest challenges in the wake of his wife Sunanda Pushkar’s demise, Tharoor managed to retain his seat.

Although confident that his track record as an MP since 2009 would be his biggest asset in this election too, Tharoor said he would not be complacent. “I took the seat in 2009 from the Communists who had won two previous elections and held it against the BJP which came second. Now it’s a three-cornered election and I do not take any election for granted,” Tharoor told The Indian Express.

On the Thiruvananthapuram contest having already hit the headlines, Tharoor said: “I work very hard and my constituents have seen me in action responding to their needs in the last 15 years. I would run on my own record and I have never needed to attack my opponent as I don’t believe in negative politics. I welcome both the candidates whose names are announced by their respective parties and look forward to the imminent announcement of my party.”

Tharoor also said he is not worried about the resources the BJP and Chandrasekhar would mobilise for their campaign. “I have been outspent by the BJP in 2014 and 2019. They are very well-funded and I know I will be outspent this time too. But the fact is that at the end of the day, people are swayed by the appeal of the candidates, not by money alone. I am proud of my record of delivering various development initiatives to my constituency and the daily responsiveness to hundreds of constituent petitions and requests.”

Raveendran has an image of a commoner. While both Tharoor and Chandrasekhar are upper-caste Nairs, the LDF candidate is from a backward community. “Raveendran is an underdog, and he could surprise others by emerging as a winner between the clash of the so-called titans,” said a Left leader.

However, Raveendran’s statement that he would no longer contest the elections ahead of his party’s announcement of his candidature could hurt his chances.

Some Left leaders say Raveendran could also capitalise on the perceived disenchantment among a section of coastal area residents – crucial vote base like Nairs in the constituency – against Tharoor and the BJP-led Centre over the Adani Vizhinjam port project. The coastal communities including Christian and Hindu Nadars have been upset with Tharoor for supporting the project.

But sources close to Tharoor said he has already reached out to the community. On his part, he said, “No other MP has spoken for the fishermen community as I have done. I have raised their issues over 20 times in the Lok Sabha. I have taken up the issues like coastal erosion, fisherman needs, financial assistance, etc.”

Chandrasekhar’s major challenge would be familiarising himelf with his constituents whereas his two opponents have already been known faces in the belt. His nomination came on the eve of the polls even as several state BJP leaders had been vying to get it.

The BJP has never been able to win a Lok Sabha seat in Kerala. In the Assembly polls, the party won only once from Nemam in Thiruvananthapuram district, where O Rajagopal had won in 2016.

In 1984, when P Kerala Varma Raja, of the Travancore royal family, contested the Lok Sabha elections for the Hindu Munnani from Thiruvananthapuram, the consolidation of Hindu votes shook the state’s political dispensation. So much so, that Communist veteran E M S Namboothiripad was forced to push out a splinter Muslim League group from the Left front. Varma eventually finished third. In the years since, the influence of the BJP has grown in the district, which still retains a soft corner for the royal family.

In the 2009 polls, Rajagopal gave a scare to the LDF and the Congress-led UDF when he got ahead of Tharoor in the first few rounds of counting.

In the 2019 polls, the BJP’s Kummanam Rajasekharan had won 31.3 percent votes, the highest among what the BJP got in the 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state.

The BJP’s apparent delay in deciding Chandrasekhar’s ticket – he was not invited to the multiple programmes Prime Minister Narendra Modi has attended in Thiruvananthapuram in the recent past – and the possible lack of support from the local BJP unit might undermine his prospects, BJP sources said.

Chandrasekhar’s moderate image also took a beating as he was accused by both the Left and Congress leaders of polarising the discourse in the wake of the Kalamassery blasts that killed two and injured over 50 followers of Jehovah’s Witnesses in October last year.

But Chandrasekhar, whose slogan in Thiruvananthapuram is “Ini Karyam Nadakkum” (Now things will work), is optimistic that every voter in the constituency wants to be part of Modi’s “developed India project”. “Every Malayalee is deeply aware of the last 10 years of transformation that has happened under Prime Minister Modi – that took the country from the fragile five to top five. Every Malayalee, like other citizens of the country, deeply wants India to be a developed country. I am placing on record development that India has seen, but unfortunately both Kerala and Thiruvananthapuram lagged behind across the wide spectrum of the economy, from technology to start-ups to manufacturing to agriculture to tourism. The inept handling of the Kerala economy by the current state government has further aggravated the situation in this constituency,” Chandrasekhar said.

He also claims the state BJP would stand “rock solid and united in their mission like the people of Thiruvananthapuram in making this constituency one of the 370 seats the Prime Minister would get for his third term”.