Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency: The constituency will vote on April 23 in the third phase of Lok Sabha election. Candidates who will be up in the key contest are Congress' Shashi Tharoor, CPI(M) C Divakaran and BJP's Kummanam Rajasekharan.
Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who is the sitting MP in the region, is no doubt one of the strong candidates in Thiruvananthapuram but the local opinion polls have shown BJP's Kummanam taking a leading edge in the constituency.
In 2014 elections also, Shashi Tharoor was on the verge of losing the seat, however, he bounced back in the last round of counting and won the election with a margin of just 15,000 votes.
Thiruvananthapuram is yet another seat which the BJP is eyeing to grab in the forthcoming election as going by past results, Congress vote share decreased by 10% while BJP's vote shared had registered an increase of 20%.
Out of 20 Lok Sabha seats, the Congress is contesting on 16 seats and has allotted 4 to its alliance partners.
As part of NDA's alliance in Kerala, BJP is contesting on 14 seats, Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) on 5 seats and PC Thomas-led Kerala Congress on 1 seat.
Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency 2019 candidates
Congress: Shashi Tharoor
CPI(M): C Divakaran
BJP: Kummanam Rajasekharan
Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha results in 2014, 2009 and 2004
2014: Shashi Tharoor of the Congress party received 297806 votes. He defeated O Rajagopal of BJP who had secured 282336 votes.
2009: Shashi Tharoor of the Congress party secured 326725 votes. He defeated Adv. P Ramachandran Nair of CPI(M) who had got 226727 votes.
2004: Pannyan Raveendran of the CPI(M) secured 390324 votes. He defeated Adv VS Sivakumar of the INC who had received 316124 votes.
List of all 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala
Alappuzha, Alathur, Attingal, Chalakudy, Ernakulam, Idukki, Kannur, Kasaragod, Kollam, Kottayam, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Mavelikkara, Palakkad, Pathanamthitta, Ponnani, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Vadakara and Wayanad
Lok Sabha election 2019 are being held in 7 phases. The first and second phase have already taken place which was on April 11 and April 18. The remaining phases will go to polls on April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19. The counting of votes will be held on May 23.
